Arrest Warrants Issued for High-ranking Officials Linked to Bribery

The amount of money the prosecution defines as its standard for issuing an arrest warrant in a bribery case will be lowered from 50 million won to 10 million won as part of efforts to eradicate corruption, which is considered rampant among the upper classes.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors` Office (Chief Prosecutor Ahn Dae-hee) Monday convened a meeting with prosecutors from the nation’s district prosecutors` offices and sent the measures to district prosecutors’ offices across the nation.

An official at the Seoul Prosecutors’ office said that “one of the major obstacles to Korea`s achieving the 20,000 dollar per capita income mark is irregularities and corruption involving politicians and other high-ranking government officials as well as cozy relations between the government and businessmen. Tougher measures will be applied to eradicate this vicious circle of irregularities and corruption in our society.”

Under the previous practice, the prosecution issued an arrest warrant against politicians and ministerial level government officials receiving 50 million won in bribes, vice ministerial level government officials receiving 30 million won in bribes and director-level government officials receiving 20 million won in bribes.

As a result of the new standard for issuing arrest warrants for bribery cases, it is highly likely that the prosecution will also lower the current standard for lower level government officials as well.

The prosecution will also demand more severe punishment for politicians and high-ranking government officials found to have accepted kickbacks and that those found to have accepted illegal political funds would face tax evasion charges.

In particular, the prosecution will apply tougher punishment against politicians exercising influence in corruption cases (Currently the prosecution placed a maximum criminal punishment of five years in jail). In addition, the prosecution will get to the bottom of window-dressing activities among some family-controlled business groups. The prosecution will also confiscate illegal returns and accumulated assets in bribery cases.

Along with these tougher measures, the prosecution will push ahead with plans for establishing a public reporting center to encourage the public to report corruption cases involving politicians and high-ranking government officials to the prosecution and offering proper compensation to informants.

Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com