Police chief claims illegal tracking request for judge

[Anchor]

Police Chief Cho Ji-ho has made new revelations through his attorney.

He claimed that among those for whom Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung requested location tracking, there was a sitting senior judge.

This judge is Kim Dong-hyun, who acquitted Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung in the first trial for charges of perjury coaching.

The judiciary expressed strong concern, stating that if true, it would be a direct and serious infringement on judicial authority.

Kim So-young reports.

[Report]

The claim from Police Chief Cho Ji-ho's side is that they received a request for 'location tracking' of politicians from Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung immediately after the declaration of martial law.

At that time, Commander Yeo provided a list of 15 individuals over the phone, one of whom was Judge Kim Dong-hyun of the Seoul Central District Court.

Cho's attorney stated, "At that time, Chief Cho thought it was an unfamiliar name and asked, 'Who is that?' to which Commander Yeo replied, 'The judge who acquitted Representative Lee Jae-myung in the perjury coaching trial.'"

Judge Kim acquitted Representative Lee, who was indicted for perjury coaching, on Nov. 25.

Additionally, he is also handling the trials related to Representative Lee's alleged corruption in the Daejang-dong, Baekhyeon-dong, and Wirye New Town developments, as well as the illegal sponsorship of Seongnam FC.

He is known to have no history of joining specific ideological research groups and is evaluated internally as a 'cautious principled person.'

Providing a location tracking list during martial law is being interpreted as effectively presenting an arrest list.

However, Chief Cho claimed that he believed such orders were illegal and did not comply.

[Cho Ji-ho/Police Chief/Dec. 9/National Assembly Legislative Judiciary Committee: "The act of location tracking itself is illegal, and to conduct location tracking, a warrant issued by the court is required, but since they asked us to do it without that, it was not something we could do."]

The Supreme Court stated, "This is something that must never happen in a rule-of-law state," and emphasized that "swift fact-finding and strict legal accountability must follow."

The Seoul Central District Court, to which Judge Kim belongs, also issued a statement expressing strong regret.

They pointed out, "If true, this is an act that seriously infringes on the independence of the judiciary," and "a behavior that severely undermines the principles of the rule of law and the separation of powers."

It is expected that controversy will be unavoidable, as it amounts to an attempt at illegal location tracking of a sitting judge without a court warrant.

However, the special investigation team currently investigating Chief Cho stated that he has never made such claims during their investigation.

This is KBS News, Kim So-young.