The truth about Kim Hak’s withdrawal process from public interest reporters
After mentioning 靑, “Minister Park Sang-hee instructs Kim to look for departure”
Information from the Ministry of Justice is disseminated to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
Former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui is leaving the court after hearing the suspect before arrest for bribery charges held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on May 16, 2019. Reporter Seo Jae-hoon
It was confirmed that Suwon District Prosecutors, who was in charge of investigating the suspicion that the process of urgent departure (withdrawal) from the Ministry of Justice two years ago by Kim Hak-eui (65), former vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, was illegal, formed a separate investigation team consisting of five prosecutors. In particular, the prosecution decided to concentrate on investigative power to identify the’supervisor’ who ordered a request for withdrawal of illegal possession and inquiring of unauthorized departure records for former Vice Minister Kim at the time.
If it is found that such an act was ordered by the Ministry of Justice or senior officials of the prosecution, the prosecution’s judgment is that 100% of the crimes of abuse of authority can be established for them. In fact, the situation in which the Ministry of Justice and the fact-finding team of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office were moving in unison in the process of stopping the departure of former Vice Minister Kim is also emerging, so it is impossible to rule out the possibility that former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Justice will be on the prosecution line.
Suspicion of involvement in the head of the Ministry of Justice in confirming Kim Hak’s departure
In the public interest report on the withdrawal of former Vice Minister Kim, confirmed by the Hankook Ilbo on the 14th, “public officials in charge of immigration of the Ministry of Justice inspected former Vice Minister Kim (private) under the direction of Justice Minister Park Sang-geun and Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters, etc. . The officials of the Ministry of Justice confirmed personal information such as △name, △date of birth △real-time departure from Korea through the Ministry of Justice and the Incheon Airport computer network from March 19 to 22, 2019. However, it does not contain specific details on how Minister Park and General Manager Cha, etc. ordered. In fact, it seems to have described the presumption that it was an act according to the’superior order’, even from common sense, rather than the fact that the relationship was indicated.
According to the public interest report, the information collected in relation to former Vice Minister Kim was reported to the Ministry of Justice and then forwarded to the fact-finding team of the Supreme Swordsman’s past, which looked into the suspicions surrounding him. And on March 23 of the same year, prosecutor Lee Gyu-won (43), who was dispatched to the fact-finding team, requested an emergency withdrawal, and the public interest reporter pointed out that the Ministry of Justice approved the request that was full of illegality.
The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office (Team Leader Jeong-seop Lee, 3rd Criminal Division Chief) is initially planning to check the facts of the contents of the public interest report against the Immigration Inspection Division of the Ministry of Justice and the Incheon International Airport Immigration Office. This prosecutor, who is suspicious of making an emergency withdrawal request with a’false case number’, may be subject to a suspicion of creating and performing false official documents.
At the end of March, 2019, Kim Hak-eui, former Vice Minister of Justice, is the process of urgent departure ban. Graphic = Reporter Kang Jun-gu
“If the public interest report is true, a charge of abuse of authority is established”
If the main contents of the public interest report are confirmed to be true, there is a high likelihood that the case will go beyond the prosecutor’s personal misconduct and expand toward finding out whether the former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Justice have misconducted. A high-ranking prosecutor who knew the situation at the time said, “It means that we mobilized a large number of the Ministry of Justice to find out the fact that former Vice Minister Kim was leaving the country.” “Because former Vice Minister Kim was a civilian at the time, the person who gave such an order was 100% guilty of abuse of authority.” . The offense of ex officio abuse is applied when a public official abuses his or her authority to do something without obligation or interferes with the exercise of the right. If the Ministry of Justice employees were forced to collect information on the departure of former Vice Minister Kim illegally and then used it, it means that the supervisor who ordered it would be punished for abuse of authority.
In addition, there were suspicions that the Office of the Attorney Office of the Ministry of Justice at the time conducted a’watching inspection’ against the employees who inquired Kim’s departure records. The inspectorate’s office warned only two public interest lawyers who were suspicious of leaking information related to withdrawal to former Vice Minister Kim in advance, but five other employees were “no suspicion” for the act of real-time inquiring of Kim’s departure records. did.
Some observers cautiously observe that the arrow may be headed toward the Blue House. This is because President Moon Jae-in directly ordered, “It is necessary to thoroughly investigate the case of former Vice Minister Kim” on March 18, 2019, five days before the withdrawal of Kim’s withdrawal. The prosecutor who requested the withdrawal is known to be close to Lee Gwang-cheol, the current civil administration secretary, who was at the time, the senior administrative officer of the Civil Affairs Office of the Blue House, and the 36th class member of the Judicial Research and Training Institute.
On this day, the Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office formed a separate investigation team consisting of two chief prosecutors and three prosecutors, took over the case records, and began to review the records in earnest. The prosecution is reported to have formed an investigation team in consideration of the seriousness of the matter, including 10 persons from the Ministry of Justice and prosecution, including former Minister Park, in the public interest report. Investigative command was decided by Second Deputy Prosecutor Song Gang (47th and 29th).
Hyunjoo Lee reporter [email protected]
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