Former National Office of Investigation head indicted for obstructing murder case probe

GWANGJU, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- A former head of the National Office of Investigation under the National Police Agency was indicted Wednesday on charges of obstructing an investigation into a high-profile murder case in Gwangju, prosecutors said.

Park Sung-ju was charged with abuse of power for allegedly ordering separate investigations into the suspect's stalking and rape case and his subsequent murder case, according to the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office.

Park allegedly gave such orders despite repeated suggestions to the contrary from front-line police officers, apparently out of fear that combining the two cases involving the same suspect may expose the police's failure to stop the suspect from committing additional crimes following his first offense.

The murder case involves 23-year-old Jang Yoon-gi, who has been charged with stabbing and killing a 17-year-old female student on a street in the city located some 270 kilometers south of Seoul, two days after he allegedly stalked and raped a Vietnamese acquaintance, also in Gwangju.

The Gwangju prosecutors office said Park's order prevented the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station from properly examining the rape and murder charges against Jang, leading the police to refer him to the prosecution on a simple murder charge, which carries a far lighter sentence than the minimum life imprisonment handed down for rape-murder.

Prosecutors later carried out a supplementary investigation and charged Jang with rape and murder.