Prosecution Grants a Request

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s search team secured a journal of a person name Hong (62, under arrest) on August 25 which says he asked a favor of former and present prosecutors and the prosecution’s employees, and they complied with his requests such as dismissing his case. He is currently suspected of presenting money and other articles to the prosecution, police and MBC, and is under investigation by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s search team.

The police are especially focusing on the fact that the cases, the prosecutors in charge of them, and the results and dates written in the journal precisely coincide with each other, and plan to investigate whether people written about in the journal actually complied with Hong’s requests and proceeded with the cases in a favorable way to him.

The police said on the same day that the journal contained eight to nine cases where he was accused or stood before the court as a defendant, or which involved his acquaintances from early 2002 to late 2004.

They added that the journal said Hong asked a favor of a superintendent public prosecutor “K” at the Seoul Higher Prosecutor’s Office, a lawyer “K” affiliated with the Prosecutor’s Office, an employee “B” at the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office, and others.

According to the journal, Hong, who was being charged with extortion in October 2002, asked “K” prosecutor and others to put down the case and then was acquitted of the charge. And the police said that the journal included a record which says the case where Hong was accused of violating a law regarding the registration of a rightful person of real estate was transferred to another prosecutor’s office twice, an unprecedented result that may have resulted from his asking a favor of prosecutor “K.”

The journal also mentioned that Hong handed over money only when the prosecution complied with his request.

The police stated that Hong wrote about what happened in the form of “on a certain date, the case proceeded as I requested, so I gave X million won,” and that police officers and public servants who had been under investigation all confessed not before long they started to investigate the case as the journal said.

Due to this, it is said that prosecution-related records are also dependable.

Regarding this, a prosecutor for Hong explained that Hong never even made a call to “K” prosecutor who is allegedly said to have complied with his request.

While the police are waiting for instructions from the prosecution on two superintendent public prosecutors who are accused of granting Hong’s requests, they will send summonses to lawyers who were former superintendent public prosecutors and the prosecution’s employees.

Jae-Myoung Lee egija@donga.com needjung@donga.com