The Central District Prosecutors' Office Begins Inspection of Lee Seong-yoon and Park Eun-jung over Allegations of 'Yoon Targeted Surveillance'

Lee Seong-yoon, former chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (currently a research fellow at the Legal Research and Training Institute), and Park Eun-jung, former inspection officer of the Ministry of Justice (currently head prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office's Major Economic Crimes Investigation Division), are undergoing an inspection related to allegations of a "probe to oust Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol."

According to the legal community on the 6th, the Human Rights Protection Office of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Hwan-gi) recently sent written inquiries to both individuals requesting explanations regarding the circumstances of the case.

Former Seoul Central District Prosecutor General Lee Seong-yoon / Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Typically, inspections of prosecutors facing criminal charges are conducted after the case is brought to trial. However, the prosecution reportedly judged that there was no problem initiating an inspection before indictment, considering that the disciplinary statute of limitations (3 years) for former Chief Lee and former Officer Park expires next month, and that the criminal charges have been sufficiently proven through the prosecution's investigation. It is also known that the handling of the cases involving former Chief Lee and former Officer Park, which were sent to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (Gongsa), was delayed, and considering the statute of limitations, the inspection proceeded according to the usual procedures.

Former Chief Lee wrote on social media (SNS) on the same day, "Yoon Seok-yeol's style of fairness and justice is completely different from social common-sense fairness and justice. If it is not a subject to mention the rule of law, at least there should be some sense of shame, but there is not even that." He added, "It is beyond shamelessness and makes me nauseous, but I will stand firm and fight to uphold fairness and justice according to social common sense."

Former Officer Park also sarcastically commented on SNS, "Is this really something to make such a fuss about? To borrow the words of the Senior Vice Chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council, my fault is very great for not recognizing the 'shining sun, the leader who saves the nation.'"

Former Chief Lee and former Officer Park are accused of providing Ministry of Justice and Supreme Prosecutors' Office materials, obtained during the inspection of Han Dong-hoon, then chief prosecutor (currently Minister of Justice), in connection with the "Channel A case" in October 2020 during former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae's tenure, to the Ministry of Justice Inspection Committee without authorization. At that time, the Ministry of Justice Inspection Committee was inspecting President Yoon, who was then Prosecutor General. Former Officer Park is also accused of instructing a subordinate prosecutor to revise or delete a draft report that stated "it is difficult to hold Prosecutor General Yoon accountable."

The Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Choi Woo-young), which investigated the case, judged in February that former Chief Lee and former Officer Park were suspected of abuse of authority and obstruction of rights, and sent part of the case to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (Gongsa). When investigative agencies such as the prosecution discover criminal charges against high-ranking officials, they must transfer the case to Gongsa. The prosecution plans to review whether to indict former Chief Lee and former Officer Park as soon as Gongsa transfers the case.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.