The chair and the operations committee chair of the Gangseo District Council in Seoul, who are under suspicion of hiring corruption, have been handed over to prosecutors while in custody.
According to police on Apr. 9, the Seoul Gangseo Police Station referred the Gangseo District Council chair, a person surnamed Park, and the operations committee chair, a person surnamed Jeon, to prosecutors under arrest on charges of accepting bribes under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
They are suspected of exerting influence in the process in which A, a term-limited public official affiliated with the Gangseo District Council, was hired as a specially appointed public official. A was reportedly in charge of recruitment and personnel affairs.
Police said they received a request for investigation from the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission in Oct. last year and conducted searches and seizures of the offices of the council chair and the operations committee chair, and have been questioning Park and Jeon as suspects.
The Seoul Southern District Court also conducted a pre-arrest interrogation of the suspects (substantive review of warrants) on Mar. 31 and issued arrest warrants, citing concerns over destruction of evidence.