On the 26th, the High-ranking Public Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (Aircraft Investigation Office), which investigates suspicions of ‘external pressure to avoid investigation’ into the ‘Marine Corps soldier death case’, summoned Jae-eun Yoo, a legal affairs officer at the Ministry of National Defense, as a suspect for questioning. This was the first summons and investigation in eight months since the complaint against Manager Yoo was filed.
The Corruption Investigation Office is investigating Director Yoo on charges of ordering Park Jeong-hoon, former head of the Marine Corps investigation team, to reduce the investigation while investigating the death of Corporal Chae Soo-geun during a search for missing persons in heavy rain last year (abuse of power, etc.). It is said that Manager Yoo called former Director Park and said to the effect that ‘(the suspects) should be limited to those who were directly at fault.’ In August of last year, former Director Park reported Director Yoo to the Corruption Investigation Office on these charges, and in September of last year, the Democratic Party also reported Director Yoo.
The Corruption Investigation Office is also investigating Director Yoo’s involvement in the Ministry of National Defense’s prosecution team retrieving the investigation results of Corporal Chae’s case after former Director Park transferred them to the police. The Corruption Investigation Office, which obtained records of Manager Yoo’s phone calls with police officials and Presidential Office Discipline Secretary Lee Si-won, is said to have investigated Manager Yoo, who was present that day, to find out what conversations took place at the time. Last January, the Corruption Investigation Office seized and searched Manager Yoo’s office and home.
In response to this, Manager Yoo’s side is known to be of the position that ‘the investigation results were lawfully retrieved from the police in order to secure evidence for the mutiny incident in which former Director Park violated the Minister of National Defense’s order to withhold the transfer of the investigation results.’
At the end of July last year, when then-Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-seop reported that Marine Corps Investigation Team Chief Park Jeong-hoon would hand over investigation materials to the police indicating that eight people, including Marine Corps 1st Division Commander Lim Seong-geun, should be charged with occupational manslaughter, he initially approved it, but then changed his stance. It is reported that it has been put on hold. Nevertheless, on August 2nd of last year, former Director Park handed over the investigation data to the police, and on the same day, the military prosecutors began an investigation into the ‘alleged rebellion’ and retrieved the data. At the time, former Director Park was dismissed from his position for ‘serious disruption of military discipline.’ The Corruption Investigation Office had previously summoned and investigated former Defense Minister Lee Jong-seop, who is suspected of abuse of power in relation to this incident, as a suspect on the 7th of last month.
Tags: Ministry Public Prosecution summons Ministry Defense legal affairs officer suspect suspicion Corporal Chae case
