A committee reviewing whether prosecutors broke the law or violated human rights while investigating cases including the alleged Wirye new town development corruption scandal, for which President Lee Jae-myung has been indicted, has been told that its first round of inquiries found no serious violations. Procedural problems were found in parts of some investigations, and the committee will meet again on the 29th to discuss them further. Even with the fact-finding team concluding there was no illegality, attention is growing over what steps the committee's members, viewed as pro-government, will take.
According to the legal community on the 17th, the Committee for the Future of Human Rights-Respecting Prosecution received findings on the 15th on whether prosecutors acted unlawfully in investigating and indicting three cases: the alleged Wirye new town development corruption scandal, alleged statistics manipulation under the Moon Jae-in administration, and the fatal shooting of a South Korean official in the West Sea. The report was delivered by the committee's fact-finding team.
The team reported that it found no clear evidence of illegality in the investigations or indictments, such as prosecutors deleting evidence unfavorable to suspects or deliberately fabricating a case before bringing charges. The team did, however, report finding that incorrect facts had been included in a search and seizure warrant request and that suspects' right to defend themselves had been somewhat inadequately guaranteed.
After receiving the findings, committee members notified the team that supplementary inquiries were needed on three or four matters, according to officials familiar with the matter. The team plans to conduct written inquiries and report final results on the three cases at a meeting on the afternoon of the 29th.
The committee, created to examine allegations of abuse of authority in prosecution investigations, has a total of seven cases in its first round of inquiries, beyond these three: the Ssangbangwool cash transfer to North Korea, the Daejang-dong development corruption case, the case involving former Democratic Research Institute Vice President Kim Yong, and allegations of false reporting that defamed Yoon Suk-yeol. In August, 12 additional cases, including the Seongnam FC case, were selected for review.
The final judgment now rests with the committee. After deliberating on the first three cases, it must recommend or advise the justice minister on follow-up steps. The post of justice minister, however, is currently vacant. Inside and outside the legal community, there is concern that the committee could go as far as referring some allegations for investigation, given that most of its members are seen as pro-government.
That is because a referral would be the committee's own decision, even if the fact-finding team says it found no evidence that the investigations were unlawful. Six of the cases under review are ones in which the president has been sent to trial. Inside and outside the legal community, there is a view that if the committee concludes prosecutorial authority was abused, it could ultimately lead to the withdrawal of the charges against the president.
Most members of the committee are regarded as leaning toward the president, the Democratic Party or the Rebuilding Korea Party. Chairman Chang Joo-young took part in a declaration of support by lawyers and professors nationwide for Lee Jae-myung, then the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, shortly before last year's election. Another member, Oh Chang-ik, secretary-general of the Human Rights Center, has publicly called for the charges against the president to be withdrawn. Member Kim Hye-kyung, a professor of police administration at Keimyung University, attended a Democratic Party-hosted forum last year and argued that the president should be acquitted in the case accusing him of publishing false information under the Public Official Election Act.
