 |
|
| ▲ At the City State Declaration of 118 civic groups in the Chungcheong area held in front of the Daejeon Prosecutors’ Office in Seo-gu, Daejeon on the 9th, attendees said, “Prosecution reform is a strict order of citizens and a task of the times.” Some have criticized the Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office as “abuse of prosecution power” for the investigation of charges such as suspicion of manipulating the economic feasibility of Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant. 2020.12.9 | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
See related photos |
Public officials of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy who were involved in mass deletion of internal data related to the Wolseong No. 1 nuclear power plant were handed over to trial.
Part 5 of the Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office (Director Sang-Hyeon Lee), who investigates charges such as suspicion of manipulating the economic feasibility of the Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant, on the 23rd, was charged with damage to public electronic records, violation of the Auditor’s Law, and intrusion of room, and government officials of the Ministry of Industry, including Mr. Ming was arrested, and another director-level official, Mr. B (50), was prosecuted.
This is the first case of prosecution related to this case.
Mr. A and Mr. B are charged with ordering the deletion of materials related to Wolseong Unit 1, or condoning or assisting them in November last year, just before the auditor’s request for data submission.
Mr. C, a subordinate such as Mr. A, entered the office of the Ministry of Industry at the Government Complex Sejong at 11 p.m. on the morning of December 2 (Monday) of the same year, when an interview with the auditor was held. It was investigated that 530 data related to Wolseong Unit 1 were deleted.
86 cases increased from the 444 number of data deleted by the audit.
Among the documents that were deleted, it was found that a number of those directly or indirectly related to the early closure and immediate shutdown of Wolsong Unit 1, the core of the accusation, were found.
Most of these were restored through digital forensics, but some were reported to have not been confirmed.
Earlier, Mr. C was known to have said at the auditor and prosecutors with the purpose of saying, “At that time, the manager (Mr. B) said it would be better to delete the data on the weekend, so he was in a hurry late at night.”
Initially, the prosecution requested a preliminary arrest warrant for the three officials of the Ministry of Industry, but the Daejeon District Law dismissed the warrant against Mr. B, saying, “We admit part of the allegations and have no fear of fleeing.”
After securing the recruitment of public officials from the Ministry of Industry, the prosecution called for an employee of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) who was directly involved in the decision to shut down the Wolseong nuclear power plant and investigated it.
It is reported that the government looked into whether the Blue House was involved in the process of delivering the decision to KHNP in addition to the decision maker of the early shutdown of the Wolseong nuclear power plant.
However, the prosecution is refraining from the investigation process for criminal charges other than data deletion.
There has been no confirmation of a summons investigation of former Minister of Industry Baek Woon-gyu or Korea Gas Corporation President Chae Hee-bong (former Blue House Industrial Policy Secretary) who are classified as key suspects in this case.
Some analysts say that the power of the investigation weakened as Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who had been directing the case, was suspended for two months.
The Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office is expressing an end to the war with the intention that’the investigation has nothing to do with the actions of the prosecutor general’.
An official at the prosecution said, “We will continue to investigate the other crimes of the defendants (such as Mr. A) and those involved.”
<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스, 무단 전재-재배포 금지>