Prosecution transfers martial law case on Pres. Yoon to CIO

[Anchor]

The prosecution's decision to transfer the case involving President Yoon to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials seems to be influenced by ongoing controversies over investigative authority and concerns about overlapping investigations.

As a result, the investigation has been centralized for now, but concerns about overlapping investigations remain.

Next, we have Jin Sun-min reporting.

[Report]

[Shim Woo-jung/Prosecutor General/Dec. 5: "We believe we can conduct (direct) investigations according to the law and procedures."]

[Jung Chung-rae/Chairman of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee/Dec. 11: "The prosecution, which does not have the authority to investigate insurrection, must stop its investigations as soon as possible."]

The prosecution's decision to hand over the case related to President Yoon Suk Yeol to the Corruption Investigation Office appears to be a response to these controversies over investigative authority.

Additionally, the Corruption Investigation Office is requesting the transfer of the case according to relevant laws.

It seems they also considered the potential issues that could arise in future trials if they insisted on individual investigations.

[Chun Dae-yup/ National Court Administration Minister/Dec. 9: "(The controversy over investigative authority) does not stop at investigations but ultimately leads to issues regarding the legality of the prosecution process and the admissibility of evidence, which we consider a very important issue for our judiciary..."]

A prosecution official stated, "There is a need to address the issues of overlapping investigations and the proliferation of investigative agencies," and added, "We decided to transfer the case to eliminate procedural controversies."

However, key individuals and major evidence are still scattered across various investigative agencies.

In the investigation process concerning President Yoon, additional inquiries into key individuals are inevitable, and it remains uncertain how well cooperation among agencies will be achieved.

It is also problematic that some cases are still subject to overlapping investigations.

The investigation into the martial law command, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, will continue to be handled by the prosecution, but cases involving the same individuals have also been transferred from the police to the Corruption Investigation Office.

The prosecution and the joint investigation headquarters stated that they will continue to discuss cooperation on the investigation of major suspects and the sharing of investigative information.

This is KBS News Jin Sun-min.