The prosecution is sinking deeper into trouble, with a series of scandals damaging the public’s confidence in the integrity of law enforcement officials.
To make matters worse, an embarrassing mobile text message blunder by a rank-and-file prosecutor has many questioning the sincerity of the prosecution’s self-reform efforts.
Prosecutor-General Han Sang-dae is scheduled to announce Friday a set of measures to reform the prosecution, but few expect him to be able to salvage the beleaguered agency in a crisis of public trust and confidence.
In fact, calls are growing for him to resign.
“(Recent developments) have convinced us that the prosecution is an organization incapable of self-reform,” the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, a Seoul-based civic group, said in a press statement Wednesday. “It is time that we, the public, pick up the task of reforming the prosecution.”
Activists belonging to the group also held a demonstration in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in southern Seoul, calling for the resignations of chief prosecutor Han and Justice Minister Kwon Jae-jin.
Other groups, including an association of 10 women’s rights groups, also held rallies there, demanding stern punishment of prosecutors involved in the scandals and a drastic reform of the organization.
The latest crisis in the prosecution was sparked by two scandals involving sex, bribery and abuse of power.
In one of the two, a 30-year-old trainee prosecutor is accused of having sex with a female suspect he was investigating earlier this month.
The case is now a major source of embarrassment for the elite law enforcement agency, not just because of the fledgling prosecutor’s lack of ethics. The SPO’s high-profile investigation into the case is receiving flak for its insistence on applying a charge of bribe-taking against the trainee prosecutor.
“Bribery charges applied in this case are quite questionable and thus a need to place the suspect under arrest is also questionable,” Judge Wie Hyun-seok of the Seoul Central District Court said, dismissing the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant.
The woman who allegedly had sex with the prosecutor also claims that she did not “provide” sex, but was forced. She is now threatening to file a lawsuit against the SPO for defamation.
The SPO team, nevertheless, sought the court’s permission for the arrest warrant again on the same bribery charge late Tuesday.
The sex scandal came on the heels of another scandal centering on allegations that a senior prosecutor took massive bribes.
Kim Kwang-joon was arrested for receiving a total of nearly 900 million won ($826,000) from Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind of Korea’s biggest pyramid scheme, and Eugene Group, a mid-sized conglomerate, in exchange for influence peddling.
Chief prosecutor Han offered an apology and vowed self-reform measures shortly after the Kim scandal broke out.
A flurry of gatherings of rank-and-file and senior prosecutors worrying the fallen state of their agency followed, giving many an impression that the stiff-necked prosecutors, who have for many years been resisting moves to put them in check, may bend this time.
Such an impression was shaken this week by a text message mistakenly sent to a reporter by a prosecutor at Seoul Southern District Public Prosecutors’ Office who recently drew media spotlight by posting a real-name message calling for reform on the prosecution’s internal bulletin board.
In the text message, the prosecutor explained that his action was intended at maneuvering the public sentiment toward the prosecution so that they could retain their powers while pretending to reform.
“If we pretend to reform, we may have things play out in our favor,” Yoon Dae-hae, the prosecutor, said in the message meant to be sent to a fellow prosecutor which was disclosed by the media. “The reform measures I suggested won’t change much, but the public will think otherwise.”
Prosecutors are arguably the most powerful group in Korea’s criminal justice system. They decide whether or not to indict a suspect, what charges to bring and what sentences to request.
Pushes to keep them in check, however, have repeatedly been bogged down by partisan wrangling and vehement protests from the prosecutors.
According to sources at the prosecution, the self-reform measures to be unveiled Friday by the prosecution include reducing the prosecution’s investigative powers and granting more investigative rights to the police while having prosecutors devoted to the process of indicting.
The authority is also discussing the possibility of abolishing the powerful central investigation unit of the SPO, which has handled most high-profile cases involving presidents and local conglomerates.
By Lee Sun-young (
milaya@heraldcorp.com)
