Investigators from the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office leave the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency after conducting a search and seizure on Wednesday afternoon. [Yonhap]
Investigators from the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office leave the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency after conducting a search and seizure on Wednesday afternoon. [Yonhap]

Police said a dedicated team is conducting a rigorous investigation into allegations of secondary harm inflicted on the bereaved families of victims in the Jang Yun-gi case.

A Korean National Police Agency official said Monday at a regular press briefing at the agency's headquarters in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, that "the secondary harm investigation team at the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency headquarters is currently handling around 14 cases." The official added that investigators are "taking careful steps to ensure the families' pain is not reopened or aggravated in the course of the proceedings."

The official also said four Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency personnel have been booked and are under investigation in connection with allegations surrounding the handling of the Jang Yun-gi case.

On recently raised questions about whether investigators may have known the female high school victim before the crime was committed — and the controversy over whether the investigative team had verified this — the official said the matter "appears to have come up in the course of investigating the allegations and the motive behind the crime." The official added that "the related allegations will be clearly resolved through the investigation."

Asked whether parallel investigations by police and prosecutors could cause confusion, the official said police "have been conducting additional investigation even after the transfer of the violent crimes team leader, and are working closely with prosecutors at the operational level throughout that process."

On the progress of the investigation, the official added that "the Gwangju agency is conducting its investigation independently, led by a senior superintendent-level official, and the details of the investigation are not separately reported to the National Investigation Headquarters."


jookapooka@heraldcorp.com