Former presidential office public service discipline secretary Lee Si-won and others were sent to trial on charges of leaking investigation details and obstructing the investigation related to the "Corporal Chae case."
On Aug. 13, the second consolidated special counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young said it indicted without detention former secretary Lee and former Office of National Security defense secretary Im Gi-hoon on charges of leaking official secrets.
Former secretary Lee is accused of being briefed in September 2023 that the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency planned to conduct a search and seizure in connection with the line-of-duty death of Corporal Chae Su-geun, and of informing the Marine Corps in advance. The special counsel team said former secretary Lee leaked the search and seizure plan he received from an official at the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation (NOI) to former secretary Im, and that former secretary Im then leaked it again to an official at the Ministry of National Defense.
The special counsel team also indicted without detention former North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency commissioner Choi Joo-won and Korea National Police University Investigation Training Institute chief Noh Gyu-ho, who was then the head of investigations at the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency, on charges of abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights.
They are accused of ordering the case files of the Corporal Chae case, which had been transferred to the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency, to be returned to the Ministry of National Defense Prosecutors' Office. The special counsel team said they obstructed the investigation by abusing their authority despite knowing the return of the records was illegal and unjust.
The special counsel team said, "We will do our best to prove the charges in the upcoming trial proceedings."