Agency's response error to National Assembly attributed to staff mistake, not intent

Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, holds a press briefing marking his second anniversary in office at the agency's headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on June 15. [Herald Business DB]
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, holds a press briefing marking his second anniversary in office at the agency's headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on June 15. [Herald Business DB]

Prosecutors have cleared the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) of all allegations of unlawful conduct raised during its investigation of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on insurrection charges.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's First Criminal Division said Tuesday it had dismissed without indictment all complaints and accusations filed in connection with the CIO's investigation of Yoon.

The cases covered three main allegations: that the CIO had applied to the Seoul Central District Court for an arrest warrant for Yoon, been rejected, concealed the rejection and then reapplied to the Seoul Western District Court; that the CIO had given a false answer to the National Assembly by stating it had never applied to the Seoul Central District Court for an arrest warrant related to Yoon; and that the CIO lacked the authority to investigate and arrest Yoon in the first place.

On the so-called "warrant application concealment" allegation, prosecutors said a search and seizure of the CIO and a subsequent investigation confirmed that the agency had never applied to the Seoul Central District Court for an arrest warrant for Yoon. The related case was accordingly dismissed for lack of evidence.

Prosecutors also found no grounds to sustain the allegation that the CIO had submitted a false response to the National Assembly.

They determined that while a response stating the CIO had never applied to the Seoul Central District Court for an "arrest warrant" for Yoon had been prepared internally, a staff member had mistakenly entered the word "warrant" instead of the correct term.

However, a CIO official who later discovered the error had contacted the relevant lawmaker's office by phone to explain and correct it, prosecutors said. No other evidence was found to support a finding of intent to produce a false official document.

Complaints challenging the CIO's authority to investigate insurrection charges were all dismissed on procedural grounds.

Prosecutors said they took into account that courts had already ruled, in the course of Yoon's trial on charges of leading an insurrection, that the CIO holds the authority to investigate the crime of insurrection.


quq@heraldcorp.com