Park Joon-young, who resigned from the investigation team just before illegal withdrawal, “the essence of due process”

On the 13th, attorney Park Joon-young, who participated in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Past Photographic Investigation Group, said on the 13th that “the restriction of basic rights must have a basis and that due process is the essential content of the rule of law.” In 2019, he opened his mouth as a member of the investigation team at the time on the allegations of illegal emergency ban (withdrawal) from former Vice Minister of Justice.

Attorney Park, a lawyer specializing in retrial, participated as a civilian investigator when the fact-finding team was launched in February 2018, and worked with Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, dispatched from the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office, to investigate the case of former Vice Minister Kim’s “Sexual Hospitality Suspicion”. Immediately before the prosecutor’s illegal emergency withdrawal, he voluntarily resigned from the fact-finding team in early March 2019.

Attorney Park said on Facebook that day, “The issue of former Vice Minister Kim’s ban on departure needs to be approached from the perspective of’realization of the rule of law’, which is the role of public officials,” he said. “At the time of the request for a ban on departure, the claim that it was an inevitable business process for the realization of justice. “It is an unreasonable argument considering the possibility of criminal punishment for former Vice Minister Kim.” “(Afterwards, the suspicion of sexual hospitality at Yun Jung-cheon’s villa) was judged innocent and excused by the court (completed the statute of limitations),” he said.

The Ministry of Justice criticized the previous afternoon, saying, “There was a need to consider the urgent and inevitable circumstances that a former high-ranking official, who was under serious charges at the time, was on the verge of fleeing abroad at night.”

In fact, the investigative team launched as an investigation recommendation by the past son-in-law of the Ministry of Justice (Director Hwan-seop Yeo, the current Gwangju District Prosecutor’s Office) received former Vice Minister Kim from Jung-cheon Yoon for sexual hospitality at the villa, a bribe of 31 million won, and a bribe of 100 million won to a third party (debt exemption to the victim) He was charged with receiving the crime, but neither the first trial nor the second trial admitted the crime.

Former Vice Minister Kim convicted of bribery for 43 million won, including cell phone charges, which were separately received from the construction company, Mr. Choi Mo, in October last year. Received and was arrested in court.

Attorney Park said, “I feel sorry for some of the public officials who have been fatally involved without knowing this situation. They will also be parents, brothers, and children in any family.”

He said, “I worked in the prosecutor’s office for about a year and studied the world a lot,” he said. “I think it’s fortunate that I was out of this dangerous thing, but if I dealt with it earlier and clearly, this confusion could be prevented. I also blame myself for saying, “I wrote.

Attorney Park said on this day, “It is an unreasonable investigation to press the charges of sexual violence after being arrested for bribery. ‘The shock of seeing a scary world’, he re-published the post he wrote at the time of his arrest in May 2019.

There is also growing suspicion that pro-government officials, including Lee Yong-gu, the current vice minister of the Ministry of Justice, deeply intervened in such withdrawal measures. Former Vice Minister Kim’s ban on leaving the country was promoted by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

At that time (April 8, 2019), Attorney Kim Yong-min (currently a member of the Democratic Party of Korea), who was a member of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Ministry of Justice, appeared at the’News Factory of Kim Eo-jun’ and said, “The investigation team from other members of the Ministry of Justice is prohibited from leaving the country. When requested, I was informed that I would try to withdraw money in the manner recommended to the minister.”

It is said that the person who came up with this idea at the time was Lee Yong-gu, who was a former secretary of the Ministry of Justice, then head of the Justice Department of the Ministry of Justice (currently the Vice Minister of Justice).

Regarding this, Vice Minister Lee explained on the 13th that “I was just referring to a plan from the Ministry of Justice’s past son-in-law to recommend the necessity of promptly preventing departure and the necessity of re-investigation.” “I was not aware of the actual specific procedure and could not be involved.”

Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who is the source of the suspicion of illegal emergency withdrawal of Kim Hak’s former vice-minister by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Past Photographic Investigation Group, has been suspicious of his acquaintance with the Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary Lee Kwang-cheol since his participation in the investigation team.

On March 23, 2019, the prosecutor blocked departure from the country by sending an “emergency withdrawal request” containing the case number of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office in 2013, when former Vice Minister Kim, who was not a reason for emergency withdrawal at Incheon Airport, was dismissed after midnight on March 23, 2019. Then, in the early morning of the same day, he wrote a fake internal investigation number for the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office and sent it to the Ministry of Justice to make a’emergency withdrawal approval request’.

In this regard, Rep. Kwak Sang-do in April 2019 asked the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to inspect the prosecutor’s office, saying, “This prosecutor is a close relationship between the civil administration secretary Lee Gwang-cheol and a co-worker of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (36th term) and worked at the same law firm.”

There are also testimonies that there was inappropriate intervention or acquiescence by the then Minister of Justice Park Sang-geun, then the Minister of Justice Lee Jong-geun, then the Minister of Justice, and Lee Seong-yoon, then the chief prosecutor of the anti-corruption force.

The former Vice Minister Kim case was considered a symbol of the Moon Jae-in government’s prosecution reform to the point where President Moon Jae-in mentioned it. In addition, Democratic Party Rep. Kim Yong-min said in an interview at the time that “Kim Hak’s case is like a symbol of the prosecution reform,” and “There will be people who want the investigation or investigation not to be done properly.”

In particular, President Moon Jae-in ordered a strict investigation on March 18, 2019, five days before the’withdrawal controversy’, saying, “If we cannot clarify the truth of these incidents that took place in the privileged society, we will not be able to speak of a just society.”

Reporters Kim Soo-min and Jung Yu-jin [email protected]