Attorney Oh Dong-woon is the final candidate for the head of the Corruption Investigation Office… Nominated as a judge for the 1st and 2nd consecutive terms

On the 26th, President Yoon Seok-yeol nominated Attorney Oh Dong-woon (55, 27th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) as the final candidate for the head of the High-ranking Public Officials Crime Investigation Office, and the Corruption Investigation Office was headed by a former judge for the second term following the first term.

Candidate Oh is four years lower in training than President Yoon Seok-yeol. He began his public career as a judge at the Busan District Court, served as chief judge at the Ulsan District Court, chief judge at the Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court, and was even dispatched to the Constitutional Court to work. Candidate Oh, who is from Sancheong, Gyeongsangnam-do and graduated from Nakdong High School in Busan and the Department of German Language and Literature at Seoul National University, is not tangled up with President Yoon due to academic ties or regional ties. It is said that he did not have much contact with President Yoon while working as a lawyer.

Candidate Oh said, “I feel a heavy sense of responsibility for being nominated as the director at a time when the Corruption Investigation Agency is facing difficulties in many ways.” He added, “The Corruption Investigation Agency was established with the public’s aspirations and expectations of eradicating corruption among high-ranking public officials, but it has not fully lived up to those expectations over the past three years.” “I know very well that I couldn’t do it,” he said. He said, “We will deeply consider ways for the Corruption Investigation Office to earn the public’s trust by fulfilling its responsibility and role in keeping powerful institutions in check and eradicating corruption crimes as an independent investigative agency in name and reality.”

His history of defending repeat sexual assaulters of minors is expected to be controversial at the National Assembly confirmation hearing. Candidate Oh defended the trial of a man who committed sexual crimes against four people in 2018. This man was indicted on charges of luring a 12-year-old girl and a 10-year-old girl to a lodging establishment and sexually assaulting them between 2017 and 2018. He was accused of attempting to lure a 10-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her, but sending a text message that caused sexual humiliation to a 9-year-old girl. He was also suspected of sending a message.

At the time, the defense team, including Attorney Oh, denied the charge, saying, “He rubbed his genitals outside the victim’s underwear with the victim’s consent,” but the first trial court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, saying, “The nature of the crime is very serious.” In the second trial, the sentence was reduced to 7 years in prison, and the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court. When the defense history became controversial after the narrowing of two candidates for the head of the Corruption Investigation Office, Candidate Oh explained, “It was a case that was argued with a greater focus on procedural and legal issues (rather than the sexual assault of minors).”

Attorney Myeong-soon Lee (57, 22nd class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute), a former prosecutor, who was selected as the second candidate along with Candidate Oh, ultimately failed to run. It appears that concerns were reflected that his history of working with President Yoon on the illegal presidential election fund investigation team and his social activities as the ‘Woogeumhoehoe’ could lead to controversy over neutrality.

There is also an analysis that the investigative capabilities of the Corruption Investigation Office may be on the chopping block again as former judges take over as head. A lawyer who used to be a prosecutor said, “After the appointment of the head of the Corruption Investigation Office, the appointment of a deputy chief prosecutor is important.” On the other hand, since all of the current chief prosecutors of the 1st to 4th investigation departments of the Corruption Investigation Office are former prosecutors, there is also a prediction that there will not be a major problem in the investigative power even if another chief prosecutor who was a judge is appointed.

Meanwhile, the Corruption Investigation Office investigated Yoo Jae-eun, a legal manager at the Ministry of National Defense, as a key suspect, as a suspect in relation to the ‘suspicion of external pressure on the investigation of the accident in which Corporal Chaemo of the Marine Corps died in the line of duty’. Manager Yoo is accused of calling Park Jeong-hoon, head of the Marine Corps investigation team (colonel), and ordering him to reduce the details of the investigation into Corporal Chae’s death. Suspicions have also recently been raised that Manager Yoo spoke with Lee Si-won, Secretary to the President for Public Discipline, on the day he called the Gyeongbuk Police Agency to request retrieval of investigation records. After completing the investigation into Manager Yoo, the Corruption Investigation Office plans to soon also investigate Park Kyung-hoon, former acting head of the Ministry of National Defense’s investigation headquarters, and Marine Corps Commander Kim Gye-hwan.

Reporter Yoo Seong-yeol [email protected]