The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office dismissed the charges against Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon on the charge of attempted coercion in the Channel A case on the 6th, saying, “There is no evidence to admit the collusion.” It has been two years since the accusation by the Citizens’ Alliance for Democratic Press in April 2020. In a joint statement on the same day, the Channel A labor union and Channel A reporters said, “The prosecution has acknowledged that there was no ‘collusion with prosecuting’.
The Channel A labor union and the Channel A reporters’ branch said, “The prosecution, which said that the key reason for the seizure and search of Channel A and the arrest of former reporter Lee Dong-jae, was the planned collaboration between the prosecutor, the media, and the reporter, admitted that the investigation was excessive. ” he asserted. He continued, “The reality of ‘prosecution collusion’ did not exist from the beginning. With the prosecution’s acquittal, the frame of ‘prosecution collusion’ is now completely broken,” he emphasized.
They said, “During the prosecution’s investigation, Channel A’s reputation as a media company was damaged. Reporter Lee Dong-jae was fired and was imprisoned unfairly for six months.” After claiming, “The media company that raised the suspicion of ‘prosecution collusion’ is not taking any responsibility and is not even apologizing.” He added, “I hope that the honor of Channel A and reporter Lee Dong-jae will be restored and that this reporter will be reinstated as soon as possible.”
They claimed, “The prosecution only gave a feather-like disposition of prosecuting without detention only for defamation of a specific person for ‘Informant X’, which caused damage to Channel A and reporter Lee Dong-jae by approaching false information as a bait.” We urge the Korean prosecution to conduct an active investigation, and we want the responsible actions of those who spread false and false facts of ‘prosecution collusion’.”
Han Dong-hoon, deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (Chief Prosecutor) also made a statement on the same day, saying, “For the purpose of retaliating against me for performing my duties, such as investigating the motherland, for the past two years, the ruling powers are trying to scare the public by setting an example for what will happen if they do not listen to them. The ghostly false agitation called ‘collusion of prosecutors’ and abuse of public power finally failed today by mobilizing the government’s prosecutors, useless media, useless groups, and intellectuals to create a ‘no crime’ and cover it up.”
He continued, “The spread of false facts such as Kim Eo-jun and Choi Kang-wook ‘It doesn’t have to be the fact that Yoo Si-min gave money’, pro-government prosecutors and KBS’s ‘There are remarks about Han Dong-hoon’s general election in the Busan transcript’, and Yoo Si-min’s account was traced. Dissemination of false facts, self-righteous assault by pro-government prosecutors and illegal CCTV inspections, disclosure of suspect facts by Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae/Park Beom-gye, disclosure of illegal investigation status, and random abuse of investigation command, the same advices from the ruling powers and fraudsters and certain media such as MBC “The truth should be revealed and accountable for false incitement and false accusations of false propaganda and false accusations by non-counseling operations and Mineon-ryun,” he insisted.
The Citizens’ Coalition for Democracy, which accused Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, said, “I think that the prosecution’s disposition of non-prosecution as ‘no charges’ is unreasonable and should be appealed.” We will make a final decision on whether to report and appeal.”
Investigation team finally couldn’t crack the password on a prosecutor’s cell phone
Previously, in August 2020, former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae and Channel A reporter Baek Seung-woo threatened Lee Cheol, former CEO of Value Invest Korea, who was a major shareholder of ShillaJen, and said, “I tried to make them state information about corruption of passport figures such as Yoo Si-min, who is not legally obligated to do so, but He was charged with coercion, saying, “I failed to achieve my goal and only tried.”
The issue was whether there was a collusion between Channel A reporter and Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon. The name ‘Han Dong-hoon’ appeared more than 30 times in the prosecution’s indictment, but it was not possible to specify whether or not it was a conspiracy. This was the result of not being able to secure the remarks of Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon through upbringing, and also confirmed that the two had made a lot of contact, but did not directly confirm what kind of content came and went. This would have been possible with the cooperation of Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said on the 6th, “A prosecutor tried forensics on a cell phone (iPhone), etc., but 22 months after the first forensic attempt (June 2020), it was judged that the current technology was not effective in the attempt to unlock the cell phone. We cannot even estimate the period of release, and it is questionable whether it is appropriate to try to release it indefinitely over a long period of time.”
In response to this non-prosecution, the Hankyoreh said, “The investigation team has not been able to secure evidence to substantiate the charges of prosecutor Han after two years of investigation. The investigation team had to solve it on their own because a prosecutor did not give out the password, but in the end it failed. Meanwhile, former reporter Lee Dong-jae was acquitted at the first trial in July last year.” The Chosun Ilbo said, “The investigation team in this case reported not guilty 12 times since January last year, but the pro-government-oriented Central Prosecutor’s Office approved it, citing the reason that ‘a prosecutor did not provide a password, so cell phone forensics could not be conducted’. has been delayed,” he reported.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office explained the background of the acquittal, saying, “If the case processing is delayed for a long time, the unstable status of the persons involved in the case will continue and controversies will arise. . The Hankyoreh predicted that “a prosecutor who has removed the shackles of the suspect is more likely to take on important posts such as the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office under the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.”