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| Members of a coalition of civic groups call for prosecution reform in front of Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) building in southern Seoul, Monday. They also demanded all top-level prosecutors of the SPO resign to take responsibility for a series of corruption cases involving prosecutors and the resulting internal feud within the law enforcement agency. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Prosecutor under probe for improper link with lawyer
By Yun Suh-young
The prosecution has launched an investigation into another corruption case involving a prosecutor, plunging the already troubled law enforcement agency into a deeper crisis.
An inspection team at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said Monday that it was investigating the prosecutor from the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office for allegedly having an improper link with a lawyer in a case he was in charge of.
Investigators said the 37-year-old prosecutor surnamed Park allegedly introduced a suspect to a law firm his brother-in-law works for.
They are trying to confirm the allegations that Park received about 100 million won from a doctor who was indicted for injecting overdoes of propofol, an intravenous anesthesia, into patients in 2010. The suspect was among five cosmetic surgeons and gynecologists in the propofol case.
Park is suspected of pedaling his influence for the doctor in return for the cash.
Investigators raided Park's office and the law firm to seize documents related to the case.
However, the team said it has yet to confirm whether Park's brother-in-law received hundreds of millions of won for taking the case.
This is the fourth time a search and seizure has been conducted on an incumbent prosecutor. The first incident was in 1999 and the other two were conducted last month on two prosecutors for accepting bribes and having sex with a suspect for favors.
The bribery and sex scandals have triggered prosecutors to call for reform. They also touched off an internal strife at the prosecution over how to reform itself.
Prosecutor General Han Sang-dae resigned from his post Friday, taking responsibility for the scandals and the internal feud. He left the remaining task of reform in the hands of his successor.
However, it is unlikely that a new prosecutor general will take over his post for the next three months as President Lee Myung-bak will find it hard to appoint one as his tenure ends in February.
Deputy Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook will serve as the acting prosecutor general until a new chief is appointed.
Meanwhile, Choi Jae-gyeong, chief of the Central Investigation Department (CID) at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, also submitted a letter of resignation Friday following Han's resignation. But the Ministry of Justice returned the letter to Choi, telling him continue with his duties.
He had been in a feud with Han over the abolition of the CID as part of reforms of the prosecution and over accusations he assisted senior prosecutor Kim Kwang-joon who has been arrested on bribery charges.
Kim is suspected of receiving a total of nearly 900 million won ($826,000) from Cho Hee-pal, the mastermind of South Korea's biggest pyramid scheme, and the Eugene Group, a mid-sized conglomerate, in exchange for influence peddling.
Kim's bribery case was followed by the sex scandal surrounding a 30-year-old trainee prosecutor at the Seoul Dongbu District Prosecutor's Office who allegedly had sex with a 42-year-old female suspect in a theft case.
The prosecutor surnamed Jeon is accused of having sexual activity with the suspect while questioning her on Nov. 10. He is also suspected of having sex with her at a motel two days after their first exchange.
The inspection team is also investigating a prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office over allegations that he took bribes from the operator of a horse-racing betting shop in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province.
In the meantime, members of a civic group coalition called for prosecution to reform in front of the Supreme prosecutors Office (SPO) building in southern Seoul, Monday morning.
They demanded the resignations of all top-level prosecutors at the SPO to take responsibility for the corruption cases and sex scandal.
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