Fake case number excommunicated…The full story of’Illegal Withdrawal of Kim Hak’, Supreme Prosecutor’s Office

It was confirmed on the 11th that a public interest report was filed with the National Rights Commission that the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s past photographic investigation team illegally banned former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui from leaving the country on March 23, 2019 with a false official letter containing a fake case number. The gist of the report is that the past investigation team to uncover the truth about the suspicion of’Kim Hak’s villa sexual hospitality’, which the prosecutors were not charged with twice, violated due process and prevented his departure.

Unfortunately, this happened five days after President Moon Jae-in instructed on the 18th of the same month, “The leadership should bet the organization to reveal the truth.”

According to the contents of the public interest report, which was covered by the JoongAng Ilbo on the 11th, the request for the urgent departure ban sent by the prosecutor (43) dispatched to the Incheon Airport Immigration Office at the time was an illegal act in violation of the Immigration Control Act and the enforcement ordinance. Former Vice Minister Kim was only a reference to the past photographic investigation, and was not in a state of being charged with a criminal suspect by any investigative agency such as the prosecution at the time.

The emergency ban on departure was a measure that could be taken when there was a fear of fleeing or destroying evidence as a crime suspect with considerable reason to suspect that he committed a crime of death, weapon, or imprisonment or imprisonment for longer than three years under the Immigration Control Act.

However, according to the report, former Vice Minister Kim went to the boarding building after completing the departure screening at 10:48 the night before to catch a flight from Incheon Airport to Bangkok, Thailand at 0:20 am on March 23, 2019. He was banned from boarding after being notified of the ban on departure from airport immigration officers at 0:10 on the 23rd 10 minutes before departure. At the time, it was revealed that this prosecutor, a member of the fact-finding team, requested an emergency ban on departure at 0:08 two minutes ago.

The problem is that the case number’Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office 2013 Brother No. 65889′, which the prosecutor wrote as the basis for the urgent withdrawal request, was the number of the sexual assault case that former Vice Minister Kim received acquittal in 2013. It means that the departure was blocked based on an incident that could not be the reason for the emergency ban on departure.

According to the public interest report, the case described in the request for emergency ban approval submitted to the Minister of Justice within 6 hours after the withdrawal was taken was also false. In the request for approval, the prosecutor wrote the new internal case number of the Seoul East District District Prosecutor’s Office, “2019 Internal Case No. However, at the time, there was no case of internal affairs No. 1 at the Seoul East District Prosecutors’ Office. On May 30 of the same year, internal affairs No. 1 case number was first generated, but the report was reported that it was a completely separate case from Kim Hak’s former vice minister.

During this process, Seoul Central District Attorney General Lee Seong-yoon, who was the head of the anti-corruption and strong prosecutor at the time, called the high-ranking official of the Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office on the morning of banning former Vice Minister Kim from leaving the country, and asked, “(Generate an internal company number), as approved by the Dongbu District Prosecutor’s Office.” Suspicion of being rejected has also been raised.

It is also suspicious that the prosecutor initially requested an emergency ban on departure, knowing that he did not have the authority to ban former Vice Minister Kim from leaving the country because he did not have the right to investigate because he was dispatched to the past investigation team. An official at the prosecution said, “At the time, it was controversial that the former Vice Minister Kim did not have the authority to ban departure from the investigation team due to the public summons of the fact-finding team.” “It is impossible without it,” he said.

Also, urgent withdrawal requests are made to the Minister of Justice, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the head of the investigative agency, or the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office.

The report also contained a suspicion that the immigration records of former Vice Minister Kim, a civilian, were illegally inquired 177 times by employees of the Immigration Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice at the time. It is said that the unauthorized inquiries of the immigration record, former Vice Minister Kim’s personal information, is an illegal civilian inspection. According to the report, the three immigration officers at the Immigration Department were 177 times from 9:12 a.m. on March 19, 2019 to 11:50 p.m. on the 22nd of the same month, the same day that Vice Minister Kim attempted to leave the country. It turned out that it was collected whether or not the departure ban was.

In fact, three employees of the Ministry of Justice were inspected by the Ministry of Justice in April 2019 for violating the Personal Information Protection Act. It was an investigation into whether the immigration information of former Vice Minister Kim was leaked to the outside. The reporter pointed out through the report that “the inspection of the Ministry of Justice at the time only inspected the fact that personal information was leaked to Kim Hak’s side.” “There was no inspection at all for private inspections and violations of the Personal Information Protection Act in this process.” did.

The urgent withdrawal after 177 times of immigration check with former Vice Minister Kim is also in contrast to the delayed withdrawal to former Optimus Asset Management CEO Lee Hyuk-jin. Former CEO Lee left for Vietnam on March 22, 2018. However, the prosecution banned him from leaving the country only on the next day, March 23. Former CEO Lee was the prosecutor’s suspect on five charges including embezzlement and tax evasion.

The Ministry of Justice said in the controversy with former CEO Lee’s prolonged withdrawal last year, “It is impossible to confirm whether the former CEO Lee Hyuk-jin is prohibited from leaving the country without the request of the investigating agency.” .

In addition to the prosecutor and the Immigration Headquarters staff, the report also stated that the command line at the time, including former Minister of Justice Park Sang-sang, former Vice Minister of Justice Kim O-su, and Cha Gyu-geun, head of the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters at the Ministry of Justice, were also the accused of allegations of infringement of the public interest.

In addition to the NHRCK, the prosecution is also investigating the case. On the 8th of last month, the power of the opposition people requested an investigation to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office based on the contents of public interest reports, and the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office, which has the jurisdiction of the government’s Gwacheon Office, is under investigation.

The opposition party demanded the introduction of a special prosecutor in connection with the controversy over the illegal inspection of Kim Hak’s former vice minister and the ban on departure. Ho-young Joo, the National Powers of the House, said at the Emergency Countermeasures Committee meeting on the day that “a serious violation was repeated in the emergency withdrawal of the Ministry of Justice for Kim Hak-ui two years ago.” “The case where illegality and infidelity were committed at the word of President Moon Jae-in,” stressed the national representative.

However, as well as the prosecutor who was the cause of the suspicion, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, and the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office were all silent. The three agencies only said, “There is no position to disclose” to the JoongAng Ilbo’s question about this suspicion and its position. Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office Lee Seong-yoon, a high-ranking official at the time, and Lee Sung-yoon, who were involved in the suspicion of requesting the prosecutor’s emergency ban on departure, did not respond to the JoongAng Ilbo’s request for clarification.

Former Vice Minister Kim was subsequently re-invested for a case commissioned by the Fact-Investigation Committee, and was sentenced to two years and June in prison for bribery in an appeal trial in October last year.

Reporters Namhyun Ha and Kwangwoo Kang [email protected]