The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s integrated digital evidence management system, a server that stores and manages electronic information obtained by prosecutors through search and seizure of mobile phones and PCs, is called ‘Dinet’.
The Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal for the prosecution to store data unrelated to the criminal charges listed in the seizure warrant in this ‘Dinet’ and use it for other investigations.
The prosecution explained that it has no choice but to save the data to prove its evidentiary capacity, but that it is not currently being used in a separate investigation.
Reporter Ji-in Kim reports.
◀ Report ▶
In 2018, prosecutors seized and searched the smartphones of city hall officials while investigating suspicions of housing development corruption in Wonju, Gangwon-do.
The prosecution, which stored all materials in ‘DNet’, including those unrelated to development corruption, accidentally discovered a phone call recording file containing circumstances in which this public official requested a prosecutor’s investigator to hand over investigative secrets.
The prosecution handed over the investigator who was caught on suspicion of leaking confidential information to trial, but the Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution was not guilty, saying that it collected evidence illegally.
“It is illegal to store electronic information in its entirety on ‘D-Net,’ which should have been deleted and discarded, and to use this data for other investigations.”
The prosecution, which discovered the recording file on ‘D-Net’, received a search and seizure warrant only a month later, and when the warrant expired after delaying the seizure, a warrant was issued again and only then did they seize the recording file as official evidence.
The Supreme Court pointed out that “an illegal investigation was conducted by continuously searching and viewing the recording files for three months,” and that “due process was seriously violated.”
Previously, the first and second trials found the investigator guilty based on the statements of other people involved, but the Supreme Court did not admit it, saying that there would have been no statements without the recording file.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office explained, “Unlike in the past, we are managing electronic information in accordance with the standards established by the Supreme Court ruling.”
[이창민 변호사/민주사회를위한변호사모임 검경개혁소위원장]
″By creating an independent national forensic center like the National Forensic Service, we can manage the forensic process comprehensively… ″
In particular, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the judgment that it was illegal to store data unrelated to the charges in ‘DNet’, but the prosecution maintained that it was inevitable to store the entire electronic information in order to prove the admissibility of evidence in court. I’m doing it.
This is Ji-in Kim from MBC News.
Video Editing: Hwayoung Lee
Tags: Recording files prosecution server DNet reconfirmed illegal investigation Supreme Court
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