One year after former prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol came to power, the evaluations of ‘prosecution republic’ and ‘prosecutor’s rule’ are now being used as common sense. This abnormal governance system is manifesting in several phenomena, one of which is the successive acquittals of the president’s family on suspicion of corruption. When President Yoon Seok-yeol, who put forward the ‘living power investigation’ as a symbol of justice and fairness, came to power, the iron rule of ‘don’t touch the president’s surroundings’ seems to be established.

Following the inauguration of the current government, the handling of major cases involving Presi

Mother-in-law’s ‘balance certificate forgery’ followed by ‘development preferential treatment’ allegations of non-delivery Let’s

start with the Yangpyeong Gongheung district development preferential case, in which the decision to non-sent was most recently made. It is a development project that generated sales of KRW 80 billion by building 350 apartments in Gongheung District from 2011 to 2016. The operator of this business is a company founded by President Yoon’s mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, and 100% owned by her Choi family. However, we did not pay a penny of the development levy, which pays part of the development profits to local governments. Initially, Yangpyeong-gun imposed 1.7 billion won in 2016, but the following year, it was reduced to 600 million won through an appeal, and then revised to ‘0 won’. It was only in 2021, when the suspicion of preferential treatment was raised, that 187 million won was belatedly imposed.

It’s a suspicious process no matter who sees it, but the police concluded that there was no preferential treatment or lobbying. President Yoon’s brother-in-law, Amugae Kim, said it was because he submitted false data, such as inflating construction costs, and sent Kim to the prosecution for forgery of private documents and events. Moreover, Choi Eun-soon, who served as the founder and CEO of the implementation company, decided not to send the case, saying that he was not charged with it. Because she resigned as CEO in November 2014, she saw no evidence that she was directly involved in the business, but she concluded this after only one written investigation.

This development project was originally approved for completion in November 2014, but the construction continued unapproved until June 2016, more than a year and a half later. And belatedly, the completion date was extended retroactively. The police also concluded that this was not intended to give preferential treatment, and that officials were concerned that civil complaints would pour in if the construction was delayed. Originally, the extension of the project period is a ‘significant matter’ that requires listening to the opinions of residents and the council and approval of the deputy governor, but the officials in question made up the report as if it were a ‘minor change’. They were sent to the prosecution on charges of creating and exercising false public documents.

dent Yoon’s wife, Kim Kun-hee, and her mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, are as follows.

At the time, Yangpyeong County Governor “Gives permission so well”… The police officer in charge

was invited to the ‘President’s Inauguration Ceremony’. President Yoon Seok-yeol served as the head of the Yeoju District Office in charge of Yangpyeong-gun in 2013 during the development project. At the time, Yangpyeong County Governor Kim Seon-gyo, a former member of the People’s Power, made a statement about his friendship with President Yoon and his mother-in-law business.

“I have a relationship with (President Yoon) in the past, but I also have a relationship when I was the head of the branch office, but I know very well that Seon-kyo Kim suffered because of her mother-in-law. When I’m alone with me, he says, ‘Hey, Congressman Kim, I’m sorry if I only see you.’ Why? you know Give permission like this… .” (March 30, 2022 Yangpyeong County Mayor Preliminary Election Office Opening Ceremony)However, the police decided not to send Kim Seon-gyo after a written investigation without being able to resolve these suspicions. In the early days of the current regime, it was revealed that the police officer investigating the case was invited to the inauguration ceremony of the president, causing controversy. The police officer never gave up on the investigation. I would say it is an investigation that has completely abandoned the appearance of an impartial investigation. Therefore, the results of the investigation are also full of points that cannot be understood by common sense.

President Yun’s mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, was also investigated and tried on several occasions in connection with her forgery of bank balance certificates.

Among them, the police decided not to send the charges in November of last year on charges of submitting a false balance certificate of 10 billion won in a lawsuit for the return of down payment related to the sale of land in Dochon-dong, Seongnam-do, Gyeonggi-do. Although she admitted to filing a forged balance certificate with the court, she was acquitted, saying it had no effect on the verdict.

However, Choi was sentenced to 1 year in prison in December 2021 in the case of forgery of a balance certificate of 30 billion won, which was prosecuted separately from this case. At the time, the court explained the reason for the sentence, saying, “The amount of the forged balance certificate was a large amount and the offense was committed several times, and the trial was attempted to undermine the fairness of the trial by submitting the forged balance certificate as evidence.” This contrasts with the reason for the innocence. Choi was also defeated in a civil lawsuit related to her counterfeit balance certificate in December last year.

Mrs. Kim’s ‘false career’, ‘sponsorship of a large company’ not suspected, ‘stock price manipulation’ investigation is not known

What about the cases related to Mrs. Kim Kun-hee?

Regarding the suspicion that Mrs. Kim was hired as a university lecturer due to her false career, a decision was made early in September of last year. The police made a judgment of not guilty because the university recruiters stated that ‘the false allegations of experience did not affect the recruitment’. Mrs. Kim only conducted a written investigation.

Regarding the suspicion of sponsorship of Covana contents in return, the prosecution dismissed the charges in March. This case is suspected of violating the Anti-Bribery and Graft Act by sponsoring an exhibition hosted by Mrs. Kim’s Covana Contents by 10 large companies while President Yoon Seok-yeol was serving as the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office or was nominated as the prosecutor general. In fact, four of her sponsored companies were subject to investigation by the prosecution at the time, but unfortunately all of them were dismissed. Nevertheless, Mrs. Kim only conducted her written investigation, and President Yoon concluded that he was not charged due to insufficient evidence without even investigating.

As of one year after the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, all criminal cases involving President Yoon’s wife and mother-in-law have been cleared of charges. The only thing left is the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation case. The prosecution conducted a written investigation once before the inauguration of the current government, but there has been no investigation into Mrs. Kim since. Last month, just before the opposition party designated the Special Prosecution Act as a fast-track agenda, they pretended to resume related investigations, such as summoning Kwon Oh-soo, former chairman of Deutsche Motors, for questioning, and after that, there was no news.

Even a glance at the suspicious cases related to the president’s family makes my head complicated. It is unfortunate that so many allegations have been raised. However, the process of handling the suspicion further shakes the people’s legal sentiment. In the case of a ‘prosecution regime’ in which a former prosecutor-turned-president takes office and the prosecution’s authority is strengthened again, there must have been some people who expected that justice would be realized through a fair investigation that does not discriminate between men and women. However, the reality turned out to be the exact opposite.

10/29 Disaster Investigation Even Prosecutors’ Head of Prosecution Braces

Over the past year, the police and the police have ceaselessly investigated the former regime, the opposition party, and critics. Loud raids made the news almost every day. On the other hand, investigations related to living power continued in the silence of the majority of the media, without a subpoena investigation, and then ended without charges. The investigation of the ‘5 billion club’, which includes former high-ranking prosecutors such as former special prosecutor Park Young-soo, has not exceeded the level of pretending.

Maybe that’s why? Looking at the ‘Public Perception Survey of Prosecutors’ Office of Yoon Seok-yeol’ by <Oh My News> last February, 56.7% of the respondents said that the prosecution was not neutral, and 41.5% said that they were neutral. In particular, 48.9% of respondents said that the prosecution was not ‘at all’ neutral. Compared to the previous government, 56.1% of the respondents said that the prosecution had gotten worse in terms of neutrality, and 37.7% said that it had improved even a little. Responses to the independence and reliability of the prosecution also showed similar figures.

The damage to the prosecution’s neutrality is not limited to political cases or presidential family cases. Even in the investigation into the October 29 disaster, the prosecution has fallen short of the people’s expectations. The case was handed over to the prosecution in January without the police properly investigating the police command, but the prosecution also has not made progress in the investigation of the upper ranks for more than five months.

According to recent reports, the prosecution investigation team tried to arrest and investigate Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Gwang-ho, but the prosecution chief put the brakes on and even ordered a supplementary investigation to prosecute without detention. This is a part that raises suspicion that the prosecution’s leadership is concerned about becoming a burden to the regime. If even the investigation of a social disaster is going to be so difficult, I don’t understand why they are trying to seize the right to investigate so much.

The Yoon Seok-yeol administration restored and strengthened the prosecution’s authority, which had been partially reduced in the previous administration, through an expedient called the Enforcement Decree. A large number of former and incumbent prosecutors have advanced to key positions in the government. It can be said that it was a year in which the full-scale prosecution was achieved in state affairs. However, these changes did not serve as a driving force to spread the rule of law, justice, and fairness. Rather, it can be evaluated as a situation in which the dark past of the prosecution, that is, the behavior of the political prosecution, which was used as a means of ruling power, was maximized.

“The prosecution has become the sole criterion for determining good and evil in our society.”

On the 17th, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) published <The Country of Prosecutors, One Year Now>, an evaluation report on the prosecution of the Yoon Seok-yeol government. At the press briefing, Han Sang-hee, co-representative of People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Professor of Konkuk University Law School메이저사이트) diagnosed this.

“Until now, if at least any government has defined the role of the prosecution in the political realm, now the prosecution is moving forward as the sole criterion that determines the content of politics, the direction of politics, and the good and evil of our society. As political prosecutors now turn to the realm of prosecutorial politics, we cannot simply endure these aspects of distorting, distorting, or, in some cases, regressing our lives.”This situation reminds me of the worst model of the prosecution system, the old Soviet Union’s ‘Procuratura’. The primary task of the former Soviet prosecutor’s office was to monitor and supervise the legitimacy of measures taken by administrative agencies at all levels. Prosecutors have the right to visit any agency, request materials, and conduct face-to-face investigations. The prosecutor was a member of the Communist Party organization as a political elite. Using the prosecution, which moves in perfect order according to the hierarchical structure, as the means of governance, a unitary system was created to monitor and supervise the entire government.

This system, in which the prosecution controls overall state affairs beyond investigation and prosecution, was also transplanted to Eastern Europe, a satellite state of the former Soviet Union. After the collapse of socialism in the Eastern Bloc, this deformed system came to the fore when these countries joined the European Union. The European Union pointed out that “the organization called Procuratura is too large and powerful, but not transparent.”

A huge regression in a year, this is not the end.

The current reality in which a specific group of prosecutors takes control of state affairs, and the prosecution and other power agencies work together to pursue selective investigations and prosecutions. make you feel it. And we have no choice but to be more alert that such a huge regression has occurred in just one year. I couldn’t ignore the warning of Yoo Seung-ik, research professor at Handong Global University, from the press briefing of <The Country of Prosecutors, Now 1 Year>.

“Even if this government passes, the rule of prosecutors, the institutional solidification of the rule of prosecutors, or the remaining parts will continue to remain an obstacle to Korean politics or democracy itself in the future, the most important part of what we will do in the future. I guess I need to be vigilant. Since 1987, after the passing of military rule, Korean politics, or democratized Korean politics, is now passing through the most dangerous moment. A red flag has been turned on.”