Seoul High Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun, who served as the head of the Anti-Corruption Violence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, was reported to have been banned from leaving the country illegally for former Vice Justice Kim Hak-eui in 2019.
On the 29th, the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Settlement Division 27 (Chief Judge Ok-gon Kim) held the trial of Chief Prosecutor Bae Yong-won, who was indicted on charges of obstructing the prosecution’s investigation into Kim’s illegal departure ban (obstructing the exercise of his right to abuse of power) on the 29th. was summoned as a witness.
Prosecutor Bae, who was the Deputy Prosecutor of the Suwon Prosecutor’s Office Anyang Branch, said, “(At the time of June 2019), the senior prosecutor Lee called and said, ‘It happened because the Supreme Prosecutor and the Ministry of Justice all talked regarding it (departure ban).” The time when the high prosecutor made the phone call was right following the Anyang Branch investigation team caught the illegal departure of former Vice Minister Kim and reported it to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office for Anti-Corruption.
When the prosecution asked Chief Prosecutor Bae, “Did you feel that the Supreme Prosecutor did not want to investigate?”, Bae said, “Yes,” and “I accepted it as saying, ‘Why are you making such a problem?'” Immediately following being reported to the investigation team of the illegal departure ban, he said, “I wondered what such an absurd thing had happened.
Reporter Sang-Jun Park speakup@donga.com
