The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials has launched an investigation into the complaint filed against Prosecutor Park Sang-yong, who faces allegations of coaxing testimony and suborning perjury during the probe into SSANGBANGWOOL's alleged remittances to North Korea. The CIO is focusing on abuse of authority interfering with the exercise of rights and is considering also reviewing the related crime of legal distortion.
According to legal sources on the 7th, the CIO assigned the complaint against Prosecutor Park to the Third Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan) on the 26th of last month. The complaint reportedly claims that, while investigating the SSANGBANGWOOL North Korea remittance case, Prosecutor Park committed illegal acts by coaxing testimony from former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young and instigating perjury.
At a regular briefing that day, the CIO said it could investigate related crimes linked to abuse of authority. A CIO official explained that the structure is the same as in the former President Yoon Suk-yeol case, where the scope of the investigation was expanded to the related crime of insurrection based on the abuse of authority charge. Accordingly, it is highly likely that the Prosecutor Park case will also move in a direction of examining the legal distortion allegation alongside the abuse of authority probe.
However, the CIO left room on whether it can pursue a standalone investigation solely on the legal distortion charge. Even if legal distortion is included within the scope of offenses the CIO may investigate under its statute, the view is that it is difficult to rule out the possibility of controversy over its investigative authority at future warrant application or trial stages, as relevant precedents or application standards have yet to be settled.
Earlier, on the 19th of last month, the CIO also assigned to the First Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Na Chang-su) the so-called "first legal distortion complaint" case against Chief Justice Jo Hee-de and is reviewing whether an investigation is possible.