Future Committee again requests supplementation from the investigation team... “Please reflect the insufficient parts” (comprehensive)

The Ministry of Justice's Future Committee on Respect for Prosecution Human Rights (Future Committee), which is looking into allegations of abuse of prosecutorial power, including corruption in the development of Wirye New Town, for which President Lee Jae-myung was indicted, once again requested supplementation from the fact-finding team.

The Future Committee held a closed meeting at the Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at around 3 p.m. on the 5th and received reports on the results of the fact-finding team's supplementary investigation into three cases, including the Wirye New Town incident, the Moon Jae-in administration's suspicion of manipulating statistics, and the West Sea civil servant shooting incident.

At the meeting on this day, it was found that the final judgment was postponed as some committee members requested the investigation team to 'check additional facts and reflect them in the report.' The meeting ended at around 6:30 PM, after 3 hours and 30 minutes.

After the meeting, Chairman Jang Ju-young of the Future Committee met with reporters and said, "We asked for a more complete report to be created by reflecting the incomplete or curious parts," and added, "The fact-finding team said it would reflect the opinions (of the committee members) and create a report again."

He continued, “Once the fact-finding investigation is completed, the final measures and follow-up measures will be discussed and decided by the committee,” adding, “It is difficult to confirm the timing because the results of the fact-finding investigation must be reported.”

Chairman Jang did not answer the question, ‘What specifically did you judge to be insufficient?’

Previously, on the 15th of last month, the fact-finding team reported to the Future Planning Commission its conclusion that it was difficult to find illegality in the three prosecution investigations.

The purpose is that although there were some negligence during the investigation, the investigation team was unable to find clear evidence that the case was intentionally fabricated and prosecuted.

Accordingly, the Future Committee requested a supplementary investigation and held another meeting on the 29th of last month, but the supplementary investigation by the fact-finding team was not completed and a report could not be made.

The next meeting will be held on the 12th at 2pm.

Meanwhile, Chairman Jang Joo-young, attending the meeting on this day, responded to the point that the roles of the Future Committee and the Special Prosecutor on Manipulation Prosecution overlap, explaining, "The Special Prosecutor investigates criminal acts and indicts if guilty, but the Future Committee also investigates wrong practices and deficient regulations, establishes measures to prevent recurrence, and deliberates measures to recover from damage."

The investigation target of the special prosecution bill on manipulation of indictments to be submitted to the plenary session on this day included suspicions such as cases related to President Lee Jae-myung, Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea, development of Daejang-dong, Wirye new town, and Baekhyeon-dong, misuse of corporate cards, and sponsorship of Seongnam FC.

This overlaps with the future investigation target of the future committee.

Regarding whether he plans to make recommendations at the future committee level before the launch of the special prosecution for fabrication indictment, he said, "We need to discuss it with the committee members," and added, "I think there will be a need to make a comprehensive decision after completing (deliberation) on all seven cases that requested the first fact-finding investigation."

Last June, the Future Committee held its first meeting and recommended an investigation into seven cases, including the Ssangbangwool remittance incident to North Korea, the Daejang-dong incident, the former Vice President Kim Yong case of the Institute for Democracy, the Wirye New Town incident, and the Seohae civil servant shooting incident.

When asked last month whether it was true that the fact-finding team reported that there was no illegality during the investigation, Chairman Jang Ju-young explained, "It may differ depending on the perspective," and "The fact-finding team made legal judgments for each issue, and our future committee plans to make a separate legal judgment by mainly checking the facts."

When asked again whether the findings of the fact-finding team at the time could be interpreted as a 'rejection', he said, "Rather than saying 'rejection', it means that the committee members have various questions, so please investigate in more detail or supplement the missing parts." He added, "We did not send it back like this to mean, 'We cannot accept it.'"

In response to the question that there are indications that the Future Committee's activities are paving the way for President Lee Jae-myung's indictment to be canceled, he replied, "The Future Committee investigates whether there have been human rights violations or abuses of power in the past exercise of prosecutorial power and discusses and deliberates on what countermeasures and follow-up measures are needed to prevent recurrence. I think it would be inappropriate to talk about an area that has not been discussed at all."