The complaint against Chief Justice Jo Hee-de, known as the police's first investigation under the crime of legal distortion, has been reassigned to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Investigation Unit.
According to police and others on the 13th, the Yongin Seobu Police Station in Gyeonggi, which received the case the previous day, transferred it to the Seoul agency's Metropolitan Investigation Unit on this day.
Attorney Lee Byung-chul of law firm IA filed a complaint with police via the National Petition System on the 2nd seeking punishment of Chief Justice Jo and Supreme Court Justice Park Young-jae (former head of the National Court Administration) under Article 123-2 of the Criminal Act (crime of legal distortion). The day before, he also filed a complaint with the same content.
The Supreme Court en banc, a month before the 21st presidential election, in May last year, reversed and remanded President Lee's Public Official Election Act violation case with a guilty intent. Attorney Lee argues that Chief Justice Jo and others effectively skipped the process of reviewing more than 70,000 pages of trial records within nine days through written review, constituting the crime of legal distortion.
Police initially assigned the case to the Yongin Seobu Police Station, which has jurisdiction over Attorney Lee, the complainant's, address, but appear to have reassigned it to the Seoul agency in light of the seriousness of the matter.
The crime of legal distortion, which took effect starting the day before, provides that judges and prosecutors who misuse their authority to misapply or distort laws can face up to 10 years in prison or up to 10 years of disqualification.