Arrest warrant sought for ex-justice minister

The prosecution on Monday sought an arrest warrant for former Justice Minister Cho Kuk over allegations he abused his power to end a presidential inquiry into a former Busan vice mayor.

The Seoul Eastern District Court will hold a hearing Thursday morning to decide whether to arrest him on a charge of abuse of power, and a decision is expected later in the day or early Friday morning.   

Cho, then-presidential secretary for civil affairs, faces suspicions that he ordered the suspension of a special inspection into former Busan Mayor Yoo Jae-soo, who was arrested on bribery allegations on Dec. 13, even though there was substantial evidence against Yoo. 

Yoo was under inspection by the presidential office, of which Cho was in charge, over allegations he took bribes from four businesspeople when he served as director general of the state financial regulator, the Finance Services Commission, in 2017.

The prosecution suspects Cho abused his power to help Yoo avoid punishment. Yoo later resigned from the post and in 2018 became Busan’s vice mayor in charge of economic affairs.

Prosecutors called Cho in for questioning on two occasions last week, when he reportedly said he had stopped the inspection because he deemed evidence against Yoo to be insufficient.

Cho maintains he bears “political responsibility” for the suspension of the inspection, but he denies “legal responsibility.”

It was a former inspector on the presidential office’s special inspections team, Kim Tae-woo, who raised the allegation that Cho had improperly suspended the bribery case against Yoo.

The presidential office said Monday that the court would judge whether the arrest is justifiable and reasonable.

“The former vice mayor refused the inspection at the time so we just informed the organization he had been affiliated with (the FSC) of the suspected irregularities (surrounding him),” said Yoon Do-han, senior Cheong Wa Dae secretary for public communication, in a statement.

Hinting at discomfort at the prosecution, he added that the presidential office is not an organization that needs to seek the prosecution’s approval every time it makes decisions.

Rival political parties showed mixed reactions.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea denounced the prosecution as politically charged and abusing its authority.

“The prosecution is undermining its own authority by indiscriminative, reckless investigations into Cho and his family,” party spokesperson Hong Ik-pyo said in a commentary.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party, on the other hand, said that arrest is “unavoidable.”

“Through the right decision by the judiciary, we hope the investigation gains momentum,” the party spokesperson Jun Hee-kyung said in a commentary.

Cho stepped down from his post in October amid a sweeping investigation into corruption allegations involving his family. Cho’s wife, Chung Kyung-shim, is on trial over alleged irregularities surrounding a dubious financial investment as well as the process of her daughter’s college admissions.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)