[단독]The late’Kim Hak’s Withdrawal’ was called by the Immigration Manager…

It was confirmed that the prosecution, who is investigating the allegations of illegal emergency ban (withdrawal) against former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ei, conducted a reference investigation on two staff members of the department, such as the head of the Immigration Department at the time, at the time of the weekend. As the prosecution accelerated the investigation based on the information reported in the public interest report, it is observed that the summons investigation of the superiors is also imminent.

According to the JoongAng Ilbo coverage on the 25th, the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office 3rd Division (Director Jeong-seop Lee) conducted a seizure and search for the former Vice Minister Kim’s case, and then, until last weekend, the former manager of the Immigration Division A, the same department staff B and C. I called it and investigated it. For two days from the 21st, the prosecution confiscated and searched the Immigration and Foreigner Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, the office of Prosecutor Gyu-won Lee (the Legal Aid Officer’s Office), the home, and the Policy Planning Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, dispatched to the Fair Trade Commission. After that, it was interpreted with the intention of calling the working-level staff at the Immigration Headquarters to find out the facts about the emergency withdrawal process for Kim at the time. However, an official at Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said, “It is difficult to confirm whether the reference person is being summoned.”

This is the first time that the prosecution has summoned a public official at the level of manager or higher related to the alleged illegal withdrawal of former Vice Minister Kim. In the case of Mr. B and Mr. C, the Anyang branch was investigated together with two public interest judges when investigating the suspicion of the leak of departure information from former Vice Minister Kim at the request of the Ministry of Justice in April-July 2019. The prosecution did not conduct an upper-level investigation, including the head of the Immigration Headquarters Cha Gyu-geun and Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, after disposing of them and two public interest judges.

Accordingly, it seems that the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office was summoned to intensively investigate the instruction and intervention of the upper line at the time. According to the public interest report, at the time of the 2019 Anyang branch investigation, Mr. B and Mr. C stated that they recognized that there was a problem with the urgent withdrawal request sent by Prosecutor Gyu-won Lee, who was dispatched to the past photographic investigation team at the time, at the immigration headquarters. In spite of the internal opinion, he confessed that he eventually approved it as the opinion of the immigration headquarter of the Ministry of Justice Cha Gyu-geun.

In a statement in May 2019, Mr. B said, “The case number is the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office number, but the requesting agency is the’Past Photographic Investigation Group of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.’ He replied, “I thought it was strange because there was only the signature of the prosecutor without the official seal.” “At that time, we discussed whether there was any violation of the procedure between the manager, the manager, and the head of the headquarters,” he said. “But it was finally decided to approve it according to the opinion of the head of the headquarters.”

In a prosecution investigation in June 2019, Mr. C was asked,’Have you ever witnessed former Vice Minister Kim debate or discuss withdrawal without request from an investigating agency in the immigration department before attempting to leave the country?’ Mr. C said, “I think the Minister of Justice, the Vice Minister, and the head of the (immigration) headquarters have discussed such a discussion,” said Mr. C. “The reason is, I was asked if there was a case where the Minister of Justice made an ex officio withdrawal from Manager A without the request of an investigative agency. Because I have received it.” Mr. C said that he replied, “There was no such case.”

Inside and outside the prosecution, there is a possibility that prosecutors Gyu-won Lee and General Manager Cha Gyu-geun will be summoned after an investigation into former manager A within this week. This prosecutor is the party who requested an emergency withdrawal for former Vice Minister Kim at midnight on March 23, 2019. This prosecutor is a situation in which the fact that false case numbers and internal company numbers were entered in the emergency withdrawal request form. In the legal profession, the former Vice Minister Kim was the subject of investigation by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Investigation Team, but since he was not a criminal suspect who had been put in a formal investigation, this prosecutor is interpreting it as forging the official text for withdrawal.

General Manager Cha, the person who approved the prosecutor’s urgent withdrawal request afterwards, is actively clarifying through press interviews every day. In an interview with KBS Radio’Kim Kyung-rae’s strongest current affair’, the head of Cha headquarters said, “We are reviewing the charges against the public interest reporter who reported the suspicion of illegal withdrawal to the Civil Rights Commission for leaking confidentiality in public service.” The suspicion that he had approved the withdrawal request with the fake case number said, “I believed in the prosecutor,” and said, “A senior prosecution officer working at the Ministry of Justice at that time said,’The prosecution was settled as not having a problem with the prosecution’s head.’ I remember what I said.”

Justice Minister Candidate Park Beom-gye said in relation to the case at a personnel hearing held at the National Assembly that day, “according to the High-Level Public Officials Criminal Investigation Service Act, it is correct to transfer the case to the airlift in the current state.”

Reporters Kang Kwang-woo and Jung Yu-jin [email protected]