On the 25th, the head of the Immigration Division of the Ministry of Justice, Cha Gyu-geun, said, “We are reviewing the charges against the public interest reporter who reported the allegations of illegal departure (withdrawal) from the former Vice Minister of Justice to the National Rights Commission of Korea for leaking confidentiality in public service.” Cha is the person who post-approved the request for an emergency withdrawal from former Vice Minister Kim Gyu-won of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office’s Past Photographic Investigation Group on March 23, 2019.
KBS Radio “People must go through due process even for public interest reporters”
Possibility of violating the Public Interest Reporter Protection Act
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Cha Gyu-geun (pictured), head of the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Division of the Ministry of Justice, announced on the 25th that he would examine the accusation of the informant who reported the public interest in connection with the alleged prohibition of illegal departure from the Ministry of Justice. News 1
– Headquarters Cha appeared in an interview on KBS Radio’s’Kim Kyung-rae’s strongest current affairs’ and said, “The forensic data on mobile phones cited in the press, the contents of any statement of statements, the contents of the entry/exit record inquiry, etc., at the time of March 2019 (Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office) He said, “Investigation data related to the investigation in Anyang branch.”○○○○○ hand over the entire sensitive investigation records to a specific political party (the power of the people), and those that do so constitute a crime of confidentiality for public affairs under the criminal law.He said, “We are reviewing the accusation on this part because we think that it is, and even if we do not do so, we are looking forward to a balanced investigation by the investigation team in the future.”
Currently, regarding the alleged illegal withdrawal of former Vice Minister Kim, Suwon District Prosecutor’s Office, 3rd Department of Criminal Prosecutors’ Office, has been reassigned and is investigating.
The current Public Interest Reporter Protection Act stipulates that anyone who knows that he is a public interest reporter without the consent of the reporter and discloses or reports personal information or facts that can be known from the public interest reporter is subject to imprisonment for not more than 5 years or a fine of 50 million won or less. Accordingly, it is pointed out that the contents of the interview by the head of the headquarters on the day may be a violation of the Public Interest Reporter Protection Act.
“You were rhyming with the Miranda principle, but I like it. I also agree that procedural legitimacy is important,” he said. “If so, I think that when you raise a question regarding the legality of withdrawal, you should go through a legitimate procedure to raise the issueHe also insisted.
Regarding this, inside and outside the legal community, it was pointed out that when the so-called “Jung Yoon-hoe document” was exposed to the media in 2014, the leaked process was stipulated as “national flag disorder,” rather than the content, and it was pointed out that it was similar to the behavior of the Park Geun-hye administration’s Blue House, which requested an investigation to the prosecution. A senior prosecution official said, “The accusation against the public interest reporter reminds me of the case of the leak of the’Jung Yoon-hoe document’.” At the time, the New Political Democratic Association (now the Democratic Party of Korea) and the lawyers’ association for a democratic society (Minbyeon) criticized the Blue House, which only took the issue of document leakage.
“At that time, senior executives remarked’Procedural matters with the head of the prosecution’
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Prosecutors who are investigating the illegal departure ban of Kim Hak-eui’s former vice minister of Justice are carrying out a box with confiscated goods after completing a seizure search at the immigration headquarters of the Ministry of Justice of the Gwacheon government building in Gwacheon City, Gyeonggi-do on the afternoon of the 21st. News 1
– Regarding the suspicion that the immigration officers inquired the real-time departure information, which is the personal information of former Vice Minister Kim, “the immigration official of the Ministry of Justice When news about an important criminal suspect’s departure or attempt to leave the country comes out in the media, he is obligated to check it and report it to the minister or vice minister.“And”Calling this illegal referral is a legal misunderstanding and factual misconception.” However, former Vice Minister Kim was not a suspect at the time, but a simple civilian status..
The reason why Park Sang-sang was able to order withdrawals ex officio by the Minister of Justice at the time was attributed to the report of the manager, a subordinate at the time. “The manager in charge said,’It may be possible by law, but there is no precedent. In a situation where there is no precedent, if we withdraw money ex officio, we will bear the burden completely,” he said. “I reported that because it was a reasonable concern.”
The head of the headquarters of Cha was suspicious that prosecutor Gyu-won Lee, a member of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Investigation Team, entered a fake case number in the withdrawal request and approval request, but made the payment.That’s what I believed in the prosecutorI said. therefore “At that time, a senior prosecution officer who worked in the Ministry of Justice said,’Procedural matters were summarized as not having a problem with the prosecution’s leadership.“I remember saying, “I don’t understand why some prosecution officers are saying something like this, so keep a record that something will be a problem later on. I want to ask the former prosecutor general Moo-il Moon.”
Reporter Ha Jun-ho [email protected]
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