(Seoul, Gwacheon = Yonhap News) Reporters Jeong Yun-ju and Choi Yun-seon = The fact-finding team of the Ministry of Justice's Future Committee for Respect for Prosecution Human Rights (Future Committee), which was scheduled to report on the results of a supplementary investigation into three cases of alleged abuse of prosecutorial power, including the 'corruption in the development of Wirye New Town' in which President Lee Jae-myung was indicted, failed to report on the 29th.
Originally, the fact-finding team planned to attend a closed-door meeting of the Prosecutors' Future Committee this afternoon and report the results of three supplementary investigations, including the Wirye incident, the Moon Jae-in administration's suspicion of statistical manipulation, and the Seohae civil servant shooting incident.
When the Future Committee received its first report from the investigation team on the 15th, it requested additional explanations about the incidents, and the investigation team decided to report the results of the supplementary investigation at the meeting that day.
Future Committee members gathered at the Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do at 3:30 pm on the day the meeting was scheduled.
The committee members reported that they did not receive the supplementary investigation results from the investigation team in advance, and could only find out at the meeting whether to report the results.
The meeting ended around 6 PM, after about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
At the meeting, the investigation team did not report to the future committee members, saying that they were not ready because a supplementary investigation was in progress.
Future Committee Chairman Jang Ju-young met with reporters after the meeting and said, “There was no special report because the investigation team said they were not ready to report,” and “They say no additional supplementary investigation results were released.”
He added that there was no discussion on the three cases that were initially the subject of reporting, including the Wirye incident, the statistics manipulation incident during the Moon Jae-in administration, and the West Sea civil servant shooting incident.
Instead, it was discovered that future committee members discussed future operation plans and investigation details.
The next meeting is scheduled to be held on the 5th of next month at 3 p.m.
Previously, the investigation team looked at the investigation and prosecution process, including conducting a written examination of the investigation team at the time, but concluded that it was difficult to determine whether the prosecution violated the law in all of these cases and reported this to the Future Committee on the 15th.
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 committee members reportedly asked for an explanation, raising questions about whether it was appropriate to conclude that the person was guilty and indict him even though evidence of guilt and innocence existed at the same time.
At the same time, it was reported that he expressed his position that a supplementary investigation was necessary.
The Future Committee later summarized the areas requiring specific supplementary investigation and sent them to the investigation team, and the investigation team is known to have conducted additional investigations in writing or by phone with the investigation team in question.
In this second report, the main concern is whether the investigation team will maintain its existing conclusion that there was no violation of the law in the prosecution's investigation and prosecution, and if so, whether the Future Committee will accept it.
The Wirye New Town incident is a suspicion that President Lee Jae-myung, who was the mayor of Seongnam at the time in 2013, provided various conveniences and internal information to developers in the process of promoting the Wirye New Town development project.
Prosecutors indicted President Lee without detention on charges of violating the Anti-Corruption Act in March 2023, after the inauguration of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, and the first trial was in progress, but was suspended after the president took office last year.
Jeong Jin-sang, former head of the political affairs coordination office of the Democratic Party of Korea's representative office, who is considered one of President Lee's closest associates, is also being tried in the first trial on the same charges.
Five people, including Yoo Dong-gyu, former planning director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, lawyer Nam Wook, accountant Jeong Young-hak, and other private business owners, were acquitted in the first trial last February, and the verdict was confirmed after the prosecution gave up its appeal.
The statistics manipulation case is a suspicion that members of the Moon Jae-in administration manipulated major national statistics, including real estate, income, and employment, to hide the rise in housing prices.
In March 2024, 11 people, including former Blue House policy chiefs Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Sang-jo, and former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi, were indicted on charges of violating the Statistics Act and abusing power and interfering with the exercise of rights, and the first trial is currently underway.
The West Sea civil servant shooting incident is a suspicion that the Moon Jae-in administration covered up and minimized the incident in which Lee Dae-jun, a civil servant at the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, was assassinated by North Korean troops in the West Sea in 2020, as an incident that occurred in the process of voluntarily defecting to North Korea.
In December 2022, the prosecution put five members of the Moon Jae-in administration's security line, including former Minister of National Defense Seo Wook, former National Intelligence Service director Park Jie-won (currently a member of the Democratic Party), and former Blue House National Security Office director Seo Hoon, on trial on charges of writing and issuing false official documents, but they were also confirmed not guilty due to the prosecution's refusal to appeal.
The Future Committee, which was launched last June to investigate suspicions of abuse of power in the prosecution investigation process, selected seven cases, including the Wirye, statistics manipulation, and Seohae incidents, as the primary targets of investigation.
By next month, the fact-finding team plans to complete the investigation and report on the remaining primary cases, including Ssangbangwool's remittances to North Korea, Daejeon-dong development corruption, the case of former Vice President Kim Yong of the Korea Institute for Democracy, and the suspicion of false reporting on defamation of Yoon Seok-yeol.
The cases subject to the second investigation added last August were ▲ Seongnam FC case ▲ Baekhyeon-dong case ▲ Suspicion of misappropriation of Gyeonggi-do corporate card ▲ Perjury teacher case of Kim Yong ▲ Unreasonable search and seizure of former High Prosecutors' Office Chief Prosecutor Lim Jeong-hyuk's office ▲ Moon Jae-in administration's intervention in the Ulsan mayoral election ▲ Former President Moon Jae-in's son-in-law case ▲ Suspicion of Blue House planning circumstances ▲ Kim Hak's ban on leaving the country There are 12 cases, including ▲ Kim Yeon-chang, former Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Daegu City ▲ Non-payment of severance pay from Coupang ▲ Non-payment of wages from Dayou Winia Group.
Of these, there are a total of six cases in which President Lee was indicted.
Inside and outside the Public Prosecution Office, there have been constant criticisms that the Future Committee's conclusion of abuse of prosecutorial power may lead to the cancellation of the indictment in President Lee's case.
Meanwhile, it is understood that the fact-finding team has recently begun a full-scale investigation by copying 150,000 pages of related prosecution investigation records related to the alleged misappropriation of Gyeonggi-do corporate cards by President Lee and his spouse Kim Hye-kyung.
President Lee was indicted on charges of using a corporate card for personal use while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province, but the first trial was suspended due to his election to the presidency.
In addition, Ms. Kim was indicted on charges of providing meals to the spouses of former and current Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers using a Gyeonggi-do corporate card, and was sentenced to a fine of 1.5 million won in the first and second trials and is awaiting the Supreme Court's decision.
