[Anchor]
The 2nd Comprehensive Special Counsel team has wrapped up its investigation and announced its final results. It indicted 58 individuals, including former President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim Keonhee, while leaving behind considerable controversy, including reaching conclusions that overturned the findings of the special counsel probe into the martial law insurrection.
Reporter Jang Hun-gyeong has the details.
[Reporter]
The 2nd Comprehensive Special Counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young, which has investigated remaining suspicions following the three special counsels, concluded its 180-day investigation and announced the results today (August 24).
First, the special counsel announced that it has indicted 58 individuals, including former President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim Keonhee. Among them, 7 were indicted while in custody, and 51 were indicted without detention, including corporations.
The special counsel is assessed to have achieved some results regarding suspicions surrounding the relocation of the presidential residence under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
After transferring former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Dae-ki, former General Affairs Secretary Yoon Jae-soon, and former Administrative Affairs Secretary Kim Oh-jin to trial last June on charges of illegally embezzling and executing state budgets, it successively indicted Kim Keonhee and lawmaker Yoon Han-hong, among others.
[Kwon Chang-young / 2nd Comprehensive Special Counsel: Our special counsel is also the first to indict members of the National Assembly... (Regarding the suspicions over the residence relocation) The Board of Audit and Inspection was also investigated for the first time.]
However, there is also widespread criticism that it failed to reach conclusions on several major suspicions.
The special counsel team even took a helicopter to conduct an on-site inspection of detention facilities such as the Yeonpyeong Unit written down as collection sites in Roh Sang-won's notebook, but ultimately failed to prove the allegations.
Regarding the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway suspicion case, the charges against former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong, who was pointed to as the higher-up behind the route change, were transferred back to the National Office of Investigation of the police without much progress.
It is also controversial that the dispositions regarding key figures related to the martial law insurrection were completely reversed from those of the martial law special counsel.
Former National Intelligence Service 1st Deputy Director Hong Jang-won—who exposed that former President Yoon ordered to round everyone up—and former Capital Defense Command 1st Security Brigade Commander Cho Sung-hyun—who was even awarded a medal for ordering troops moving to the National Assembly during martial law not to cross Seogang Bridge—were indicted on charges of participating in the insurrection.
The comprehensive special counsel requested 20 arrest warrants, of which 13 were dismissed, recording a dismissal rate of 65%. This is higher than the 46.1% of the martial law special counsel and 31% of the Kim Keonhee special counsel.
(Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi)
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