Ministry of Justice: "No Grounds to Maintain Travel Ban on Lee Jong-seop, Lifted"

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The Ministry of Justice stated that there was "no justification to maintain the travel ban, so it was lifted" regarding the appointment of former Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop, who had been banned from leaving the country due to suspicions of investigation interference in the death of Marine Corps Corporal Chae, as ambassador to Australia and his subsequent departure.

Former Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

On the 11th, the Ministry of Justice explained that the Travel Ban Review Committee, which received Ambassador Lee's objection, stated, "Since the complaint was filed with the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HOCI) around September last year, the travel ban was extended several times, but there was not a single summons."

Furthermore, they added, "(Ambassador Lee) voluntarily appeared at the HOCI for investigation, submitted evidence voluntarily, and stated that he would actively attend and cooperate with any future investigations," and "Considering that he must depart after receiving agr?ment, there is no longer any justification to maintain the travel ban, so it was lifted."

The HOCI had registered Ambassador Lee as a suspect and imposed a travel ban in January this year in connection with suspicions of investigation interference in the death of Marine Corps Corporal Chae. On the 8th of this month, Ambassador Lee appeared at the HOCI as a suspect, was questioned for about four hours, and then returned home.

The HOCI Investigation Division 4 (Chief Prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan) reportedly questioned former Minister Lee about his involvement in the process where the case, in which former Marine Corps 1st Division Commander Lim Seong-geun and others were charged with negligent homicide and transferred to the police, was recalled and re-examined by the Ministry of National Defense Prosecutor's Office.

Meanwhile, the civic group Judicial Justice Citizens' Action (Sasehaeng) filed a complaint against President Yoon Seok-yeol and the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs regarding Ambassador Lee's departure on the same day. Sasehaeng submitted a complaint to the HOCI requesting an investigation into President Yoon, Justice Minister Park Seong-jae, and Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of justice. Director Park Haeng-yeol of the Ministry of Justice's Personnel Information Management Division and Director Lee Jae-yu of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters were also included as subjects of the complaint.

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