Prosecutor General Moon Moo-il pledged Tuesday to investigate the alleged “MeToo”?style claim by a female prosecutor that she was sexually harassed by a male senior supervisor.
“A sexual harassment case has surfaced and has grabbed public attention. We will take appropriate measures to uncover the truth and harshly punish those responsible,” he told reporters Tuesday.
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Along with the investigation, Moon aims to create measures to enhance gender equality in the prosecution. “We will work to create an environment safe for all our workers and do our best to work with the female prosecutor who was victimized.”
Seo Ji-hyun, a prosecutor at the Tongyoung branch of the Changwon District Prosecutors Office, claims that she was unfairly moved to a different post after she made a complaint of sexual harassment.
Seo made the revelation on the intranet about the harassment. She accused an ex-senior prosecutor of groping her at a funeral in 2010.
“At a funeral on October 30th, 2010, Ahn Tae-Guen, then head of the policy planning division at the Ministry of Justice, forced an indecent act on me,” Seo said on the intranet.
She accused then director of public prosecutions and Choi Gyo-il, the Liberty Korea Party lawmaker, of covering up the incident. Choi has denied any involvement in Seo being relocated, and any alleged cover-up.
Seo claims that the then chief of the ministry’s criminal affairs department tried to cover up the incident and later she was then transferred to an unwanted post at a regional office in 2015. The relocation came after a disciplinary warning during a regular performance assessment, which she finds unconvincing.
The justice ministry released a statement Monday that there was no flaw in the relocation of Seo and that it was difficult to get to the bottom of what happened eight year ago as the person of interest no longer works at the office.
Seo appeared on a prime time cable TV news program Monday confessing her past in an effort to make things right, and stressed that for eight years she has suffered pain and regret.
Public outrage has grown since her revelation with thousands of citizens filing an online petition with Cheong Wa Dae, calling for a swift and fair investigation into the allegations.
The alleged offender Ahn was sacked by the justice ministry in June last year, due to his involvement in a “cash as gift” scandal. Two senior prosecutors, including Ahn, were dismissed from their posts and charged for inappropriately giving money to subordinates at a private dinner earlier this year.
Ahn apologized for “things that may have happened,” but said he does not remember the incident as he was heavily intoxicated at the time.