Prosecutors' Discipline Committee convened Wednesday

The Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. [Ministry of Justice]
The Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. [Ministry of Justice]

The prosecutors who staged a mass walkout during the perjury trial of Lee Hwa-young, former deputy governor for peace affairs of Gyeonggi Province, have escaped disciplinary action.

The Ministry of Justice announced Tuesday that its Prosecutors' Discipline Committee, which met on Oct. 21 at the ministry's Gwacheon office in Gyeonggi Province, voted to issue a non-disciplinary warning to Senior Prosecutor Kim Hyun-woo of the Changwon District Public Prosecution Office and to clear Senior Prosecutor Seo Hyun-wook of the Busan Metropolitan Public Prosecution Office's Changwon branch of all charges.

The ministry said the committee found that Kim's conduct constituted grounds for discipline but that commendations and other mitigating factors warranted a non-disciplinary warning rather than formal punishment. In Seo's case, the committee said it could not establish grounds for discipline after reviewing the decision-making process and degree of involvement surrounding the filing of a recusal motion at the Suwon District Public Prosecution Office.

The case stems from Nov. 25 last year, when four prosecutors from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office — now the Suwon District Public Prosecution Office — walked out of a hearing at the Suwon District Court during Lee's perjury trial. The prosecutors had signaled their intent to file a motion to recuse the presiding judges, saying they could not accept what they described as unfair management of the proceedings, including the rejection of their witness requests.

President Lee Jae Myung called the walkout "an act that disrupts courtroom order" the following day. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office's audit committee concluded in April that disciplinary action would be difficult to pursue. The Ministry of Justice, however, recommended discipline in August after its own investigation found violations including a failure to report the recusal motion through the proper chain of command. The then-first deputy chief prosecutor Kim Hyun-a and second deputy chief prosecutor Lee Seong-beom of the Suwon office received ministerial warnings.

The Prosecutors' Discipline Committee is chaired by the justice minister and comprises nine members in total, including the vice minister, two prosecutors designated by the minister, and outside members such as lawyers and law professors, with three prosecutors serving as alternates. The committee deliberates and reaches decisions by a majority vote of members present.


bell@heraldcorp.com