[Exclusive] Ministry of Justice Future Committee Selects 'Blue House Special Investigation Orchestration Probe' for Truth Investigation

Investigation into the 'Yoon Joongcheon False Interview Report'

Future Committee Selects Case for Prosecution Truth Investigation

Kyu-Won Lee, former prosecutor

The Prosecutorial Human Rights and Future Committee (Future Committee) of the Ministry of Justice has selected the alleged human rights violations and abuses of authority by the prosecution’s investigative team during the probe into the so-called Blue House planned investigation allegations as an additional subject for truth-finding.

According to a compilation of coverage by The Asia Business Daily on August 4, the Ministry of Justice recently notified Lee Kyuwon, the head of the Wonju chapter of the Cho Kuk Innovation Party (and former Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office), as well as former Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Lee Gwangcheol, that the Future Committee had designated the prosecution’s “Blue House planned investigation case” as an incident requiring truth-finding. The ministry plans to soon recommend to the truth-finding task force that an investigation into this case be launched, based on the Future Committee’s review results.

Previously, the former prosecutor’s legal counsel submitted a proposal to the Future Committee, requesting that the prosecution’s previous investigation into the “Blue House planned investigation case” be designated for truth-finding. The aim is to determine whether the prosecution team, which investigated and indicted, among others, the former prosecutor Lee Kyuwon—charged with fabricating and leaking the interview report on construction businessman Yoon Jungcheon during the probe into then-former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hakui’s alleged sex bribery—had violated human rights or abused their authority during the investigation and prosecution stage.

At the time, the prosecution indicted the former prosecutor for allegedly falsifying the “Yoon Jungcheon interview report” and charged former Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Lee Gwangcheol for his alleged involvement in orchestrating an investigation plan regarding the Kim Hakui case. Yoon Jungcheon is the construction businessman who was reportedly involved in providing sex bribes to former Vice Minister Kim Hakui.

The Future Committee was launched in June to identify cases where the exercise of prosecutorial power raised allegations of human rights violations or abuse of authority, and to recommend measures to prevent recurrence.

As its first subjects of investigation, the Future Committee selected seven cases: the Ssangbangwool illegal remittance to North Korea case; the Daejang-dong scandal; the case involving former Deputy Director Kim Yong of the Institute for Democracy; the Wirye New Town case; the shooting of a civil servant in the West Sea; the statistics fabrication case; and the “Defamation and False Reporting against President Yoon Suk-yeol” case. Until July 18, the committee had been reviewing additional cases for investigation based on criteria such as the specificity of the allegations, seriousness of the harm, social impact, and the need for prevention of recurrence, while also soliciting public proposals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.