[Anchor]
The senior police official overseeing the case of Jang Yoon-gi, the suspect in the murder of a high school girl in Gwangju, has been indicted for directing a flawed investigation. The official faces charges of abuse of authority, including issuing improper orders to investigate Jang's murder case and sexual violence case separately.
Reporter Jung Hye-jin has the details.
[Reporter]
The prosecution, investigating allegations of a botched probe into the murder by Jang Yoon-gi, has indicted former National Office of Investigation (NOI) Chief Park Sung-joo on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of rights.
Three other NOI officials at the time of the incident were also indicted without detention on the same charges.
Park and the others are accused of giving improper orders to separately investigate Jang's murder case and the stalking and sexual violence case.
[Shin Tae-hoon, Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office: (The National Office of Investigation Chief) was concerned that if the progression of Jang Yoon-gi's crimes—moving from the initial stalking and rape case to the murder—became widely known to the public, criticism would flare up again that the murder could have been prevented had the police responded appropriately.]
According to the prosecution's investigation, Park ordered the separation of the investigations with the intent that "we do not necessarily have to bring it up first" and "let's keep Jang Yoon-gi's sex crime quiet."
At the time, the police were facing intense public criticism for their inadequate response to the retaliatory stalking murder case in Namyangju.
Following Park's instructions, working-level NOI officials reportedly rejected requests from the investigation team at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station multiple times to merge the cases.
The prosecution believes that due to the NOI's order to split the investigations, Jang Yoon-gi's crimes were charged as ordinary murder, which carries a lower sentence than murder committed for the purpose of sexual violence.
[Shin Tae-hoon, Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office: The authority to direct investigations must be exercised solely to ensure the legality of investigations, guarantee fundamental human rights, and uncover the substantive truth. It must never be exercised for the purpose of covering up organizational faults or evading criticism.]
In response, Park argued that it was a "normal work instruction to maintain security given the nature of the case," claiming that the prosecution's indictment was overzealous.
(Camera Reporter: Jung Kyeong-moon, Video Editor: Yu Mi-ra)
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