The first trial of police officers indicted on charges of abetting the destruction of key evidence while handling the investigation into "high school girl killer" Jang Yun-gi will open.
According to legal sources, on the 13th, Director General Judge Lee Seung-yeon of the Gwangju District Court's Criminal Division 12 will open the first trial at 3 p.m. on the 14th for Inspector A (detained), head of the violent crimes team at the Gwangsan Police Station's Criminal Division in Gwangju, and Sergeant B, a team member, on charges including abetting the destruction of evidence.
Inspector A and others are accused of conspiring, in May, during the investigation into Jang Yun-gi's killing of a high school girl, to return a car containing cable ties, a key piece of evidence, to Jang's father, an incumbent police officer.
The indictment also includes a charge that Inspector A, during the seizure and search of the car, ordered a member of the investigative team to delete video footage of the cable ties instead of sending it to prosecutors.
They are also accused of, while searching Jang Yun-gi's rented room, discovering two damaged sex dolls but leaving the items unattended, thereby helping Jang's father discard them.
Allegations of a shoddy investigation and collusion in the Jang Yun-gi case came to light during the prosecutors' supplementary probe. Prosecutors indicted Jang for rape and murder after receiving the case on a general murder charge. While the statutory minimum sentence for general murder is five years, the minimum for rape and murder is life imprisonment.
Prosecutors also sent to trial four people, including former National Office of Investigation (NOI) chief Park Seong-ju of the Korean National Police Agency, who, they said, directed investigators to split the probes into Jang Yun-gi's killing of a high school girl and the "stalking and rape of a part-time coworker," on charges including abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights.