CIO INVESTIGATES POLITICAL MEDDLING SCANDAL

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The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials has raided the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office as part of an investigation into a political meddling scandal surrounding former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. The CIO also summoned SPO official Han Dong-soo to question him about whether Yoon had interfered with a probe of former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. It appears that the CIO is looking into all cases involving Yoon.

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The CIO searched the Office of Investigation and Information Policy at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. It’s where Sohn Joon-seong, who reportedly delivered complaints against several pro-government figures, was working in April last year. The search warrant was executed to obtain materials handled by Sohn at the time. Prior to yesterday’s search, the SPO’s inspection department had looked through Sohn’s work computer to find traces of him having written the complaints. On September 10th, the CIO had searched Sohn’s home and current office at the Daegu High Prosecutors’ Office, but not the SPO. Some watchers believe the latest search by the CIO might have produced some new clues. The agency has been working to secure evidence associated with the alleged delivery of complaints by questioning Cho Sung-eun several times and analyzing her mobile phone. Cho is the former deputy chief of the election committee of the United Future Party, a predecessor of the PPP. She was the one who tipped a local news outlet on suspicions of the delivery of the complaints. Meanwhile, Yoon’s associates had filed a complaint of their own, alleging that National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won had something to do with Cho’s whistleblowing. The CIO plans to question those who filed the complaint on Thursday. The CIO is also looking into the allegation that Yoon had interfered with an investigation on former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. The office summoned the justice ministry’s inspector Lim Eun-jeong as a person of interest on September 8th and chief inspector Han Dong-soo of the SPO on Tuesday to find out about the decision-making process within the SPO at the time. Han had publicly opposed Yoon’s decision to re-allocate the ex-prime minister’s case to the human rights department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office from the Inspection Office of the SPO.