By Lee Hyo-sik
The prosecution has had a bad year in the Year of the Tiger, with its morality put to the test following a series of bribery scandals involving high-ranking prosecutors.
It has been under intense political pressure throughout the year, particularly from opposition parties, over politically sensitive matters, including the illegal surveillance of civilians by the Prime Minister’s Office and former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook’s alleged bribe-taking.
Investigators have failed to achieve tangible progress in a series of investigations into business groups allegedly creating slush funds and politicians suspected of receiving bribes from businessmen.
To regain public trust, prosecutors introduced a package of reform measures, highlighted by a U.S.-style grand jury system, which is designed to dilute its exclusive authority to indict suspects. They also sought to expand internal affairs investigations and outside supervision of crimes involving prosecutors. But the public has largely remained cynical about these self-reform measures.
In April this year, the prosecution was hit hard by the “sponsored prosecutors” scandal, where a large number of prosecutors allegedly had been wined and dined by a construction company businessman.
An ad-hoc fact-finding committee was formed to deal with the scandal and investigated more than 100 prosecutors in South Gyeongsang Province suspected of having received money and sexual entertainment paid for by the businessman during a period of over 20 years. As a result 10 former and incumbent prosecutors were reprimanded. As a follow-up measure, Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu unveiled a package of self-reform steps in June.
But these moves failed to regain trust from the public, forcing the prosecution to introduce an independent counsel in July to reinvestigate the sponsored prosecutors scandal.
Another bribery scandal emerged in October, further embarrassing the prosecution. A 51-year-old former prosecutor, surnamed Jeong, now a lawyer, was initially cleared of charges of receiving 46 million won ($40,400) in cash and a luxury car while in office from a construction firm executive.
But after opposition lawmakers accused the prosecution of being too lenient because the defendant was a former prosecutor, an independent counsel was appointed to reinvestigate the case and arrested Jeong on bribery charges.
Not only bribery scandals implicating senior prosecutors, but also the mishandling of politically sensitive legal cases have put the prosecution in hot water. Ahead of the June local elections, it was dealt a severe blow by losing a legal battle to former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook.
The prosecution argued that Han had received $50,000 from Kwak Young-wook, the former CEO of Korea Express, in December 2006 at a luncheon at her office in exchange for helping him gain a top post at a state-run company.
But the Seoul Central District Court cleared Han of charges, saying that Kwak, the only witness to the scene, was not credible as he gave inconsistent testimony.
Following the verdict, prosecutors drew criticism not only from the opposition parties but from governing Grand National Party members as well for what is seen as “retaliatory” and “politically-oriented” investigations.
The prosecution also came under intense criticism for what opposition parties called an inadequate probe into the illegal surveillance of a civilian in September.
Investigators wrapped up the controversial probe by indicting only three officials at the Prime Minister’s Office, while denying allegations that the presidential office pulled strings to orchestrate the surveillance.
But opposition legislators insisted that the prosecution covered up evidence pointing to the involvement of presidential aides in the case.
In November, the prosecution was at the center of the political storm, with opposition parties and civic groups arguing that it attempted to cover up the use of the falsely-registered phones, known as “daepo phone” in Korean, by officials from the Prime Minister’s Office who conducted the illicit monitoring of civilians critical of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
After being attacked by opposition parties and civic groups all year around, the prosecution went into offensive mode in October against a number of business groups and lawmakers. But it has failed to make substantial progress over the past two months.
Prosecutors are investigating the heads of several large business groups who allegedly created slush funds and lobbied influential figures in exchange for business favors.
A senior prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said 2010 has been tougher than ever for the law enforcement authorities.
“There were bribery scandals involving senior prosecutors and political sensitive legal cases this year, which all worsened our public image. But we will put a range of unveiled reform steps into practice as soon as possible and do everything we can to regain public trust and raise the morale among prosecutors,” he said.