Closed investigation on ex-mayor's sexual misconduct provokes backlash

A coalition of women's rights groups gather in front of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) building calling for the commission to launch an official investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct of late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, in this July 28 photo. / Korea Times photo by Lee Han-ho

By Lee Hyo-jin

Women's rights groups are furious over the police's decision to close the investigation on sexual misconduct allegations against late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon without reaching a clear conclusion.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on Tuesday that it has ended the months-long investigation, and the case will be transferred to the prosecution with non-indictment recommendations. Under the current laws, the police have no power to recommend indictment when the accused is dead.

A coalition of women's rights groups issued a statement immediately after, criticizing the authorities for failing to conduct an active and fair investigation and not disclosing to the public new facts found over the past few months.

“As an investigative body, the police have the responsibility to reveal new information, not reiterate the information that the public is already familiar with,” read the statement. “However, they have aggravated public confusion and eventually provided grounds for those who are attempting to conceal and distort the facts.”

The civic groups claim that active investigations did not commence immediately when the victim filed the report on July 8 as “the court had repeatedly rejected search-and-seizure warrants for the accused's phone and computers.”

Shin Ji-ye, head of the Korean Women Politics Network, strongly condemned the police for their lack of effort to find the truth behind the accusations.

“Is this really the country we live in? How can women feel safe in their workplace? And who will be able to raise their voices on workplace misconduct?” she wrote. Shin also questioned what the police taskforce consisting of 46 officers, which was created in July to thoroughly investigate the mayor's case, had been doing for the past five months.

In addition to the closing of Park's case, the police stated that seven people including high-ranking officials at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, who had been called in for allegedly abetting sexual abuse, will be sent to the prosecution with non-indictment recommendations due to lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the police have recommended indictment of four suspects for causing “secondary damage” to the victim by leaving malicious comments online, and six others for posting a photo purportedly identifying the victim, which turned out to be of someone else.

Local media reported Tuesday that the police released details of the case's timeline in which it stated that the investigation into the case of the ex-mayor's alleged sexual abuse began from the time when a former assistant filed a complaint on July 8 in which she claimed that Park had sexually harassed her over a period of several years.

Park was found dead in an apparent suicide on a hillside in Seoul, July 10.