[단독]Surrounded by pro-government prosecutors… Kim Hak’s public interest reporter wanted a special prosecutor

Public interest reporter A, who reported the allegations of illegal departure by Kim Hak-eui, former Vice Minister of Justice, filed a report with the opposition party, and was reviewing the charges for “confidential leakage for public service”, while the public interest reporter was the first reporter in December of last year. It was confirmed that the reason for the visit was that the prosecutors were concerned about the fact that prosecutors, who tended to be prosecuted, had taken up major positions in the front line.

According to the JoongAng Ilbo report on the 27th, Mr. A first accused him of misconduct against a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Justice, an employee of the Immigration Office, and Prosecutor Gyu-won Lee, who was a member of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s past photographic investigation team in early December of last year. He said he reported it. This is because the enforcement ordinance of the current Act on the Protection of Public Interest Reporters stipulates that public interest reports can be made to members of the National Assembly in addition to administrative agencies and investigative agencies such as the National Rights Commission.

At that time, Mr. A said that he requested that an independent investigative agency such as a special prosecutor (special prosecutor) or the high-ranking public officials criminal investigation office (airport department) take over the case. A person who knew the situation at the time said, “Mr. A was worried that prosecutors, who were classified as close associates of former Justice Minister Cho Kook and Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae, took control of major district prosecutors and offices.”

Mr. A said in the first public interest report, “It should be appropriate to conduct an inspection directly in the Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice and conduct an investigation by a special prosecutor in parallel.“I wrote. “It is considered extremely difficult for the Prosecutor General, under the command and supervision of the Minister of Justice, to conduct a rigorous investigation against officials of the Ministry of Justice, so it is not appropriate to transfer the case to the Great Sword. It is not appropriate to refer to the police to proceed with an investigation as there is a risk of intervening in the act of applying for a warrant.“That’s why.

At that time, after Minister Chu announced a request for suspension of duties and disciplinary action against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol (November 24 last year), the Democratic Party also insisted on a state affairs investigation (National Treasure) and a special prosecutor against Yoon. The intention was to resolve the suspicion of the’judge’s inspection’ indicated as a reason for disciplinary action through the investigation of the national government or special prosecutors. The power of the people confronted the question of including Minister Chu on charges of abuse of authority on the subject of investigation and investigation. According to the assertion of the people’s strength, Mr. A said he hoped that the contents of the public interest report would be dealt with if a national article or special prosecution proceeds against the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution.

However, after that, the situation changed as the Democratic Party stepped back without accepting requests for national aid and special prosecutors from Minister Chu. On December 10, last year, the amendment of the Airlifting Law, which eliminated the opposition party’s recommendation of the Minister of Airborne Affairs, and eased the qualification requirements for airborne prosecutors (10 years → 7 years of experience as a lawyer) passed the National Assembly led by the Democratic Party, leading to the purpose of the airlift system. It was changing. Therefore, it is said that the power of the people passed the report to the great prosecutor after consulting with Mr. A, taking into account the possibility of destruction of evidence due to time delay.

The prosecutor who received the report is the person who has jurisdiction over this case. It was allocated to the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office on the 8th of last month. However, when there was no progress in the investigation for a month, Mr. A filed a public interest report with the same contents on the 4th of the last month. Mr. A requested that the case be handed over to the airlift while reporting to the Authority.. Mr. A said, “The Personal Information Protection Act (Illegal inquiry of departure information) is not the scope of direct investigation by the prosecution, but a matter of police investigation. However, the police could not believe it, and the abuse of authority is subject to the prosecution’s investigation, but the Minister of Justice said that pro-government prosecutors were concerned about crushing the case, so the investigation was necessary.”

However, Kwon Ik-Com said that it was difficult at the time because it took several months to launch the airlift. After the public interest report was released to the media, the case was redistributed to the 3rd Department of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office (Director Jeong-seop Lee), and a dedicated investigation team was formed, and Mr. A said that the report was delivered directly to the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office. However, this time, Kwon Ik-Com said on the 26th, “We will consider whether to request an investigation by the Airborne Department.” The KFTC is the agency where Mr. A applied for the protection of reporters in accordance with the Public Interest Reporter Protection Act on the 25th. On the same day, Mr. Cha Gyu-geun, head of the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, pointed to Mr. A as the key party to the suspicion, suggesting the accusation against Mr. A on the 25th.

Mr. A said that he is feeling anxious about the situation in which the repatriation of the airlift is being discussed again in the midst of the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office investigation. This is because they suspect that the theory of espionage from the passport-initiated airlift is intended to crush the case. On the 21st, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office was followed by the Immigration and Inspection Office of the Ministry of Justice, including the office of Gyu-geun Cha, the office of the Ministry of Justice, the Immigration and Foreigners Office of Incheon Airport, the Policy Planning Division of Incheon International Airport, and the office of Prosecutor Gyu-won Lee (legal assistant office) dispatched to the Fair Trade Commission and his home. The day before, it is speeding up the investigation, such as seizing and searching the anti-corruption force of the great sword. Last week, the head of the immigration department at the time of the Ministry of Justice and two employees were called as reference and investigated.

Reporters Ha Junho and Jung Yujin [email protected]