A police officer who closed a case by making it look as if a missing person's safety had been confirmed without actually contacting the person in Jeju has been released.
According to legal sources on the 24th, the Jeju District Court granted Sergeant A's request for a legality review of the arrest. Sergeant A, who was taken into emergency custody, is expected to be released under the court's decision.
The court said it granted the request because "under the Criminal Procedure Act, a situation requiring urgency means there is no time to obtain an arrest warrant for the suspect, but Sergeant A's whereabouts were being ascertained, so this does not apply."
However, because prosecutors sought a detention warrant after police applied for one for Sergeant A, the court plans to hold a pre-detention suspect interrogation (substantive warrant review) to decide whether to detain Sergeant A.
Sergeant A is accused of closing a case on his own after lying to the reporting party that contact had been made with Jang Mi-ran, 37, who was reported missing in May, even though actual contact had not been made. It was found that Jang's data was later deleted from the missing-person profiling system's management list.
Sergeant A is also accused of falsely closing a missing-person report filed last month for B, in his 60s, by processing it as if contact had been made.
Police found a body believed to be Jang's that day and located B's body on the 22nd.