Prosecutors and Police Conduct Simultaneous Raids on National Office of Investigation; Arrest Warrant for Detective Chief Denied

Prosecutors and police conducted simultaneous raids on the National Office of Investigation (NOI) yesterday (July 21) to investigate allegations of a botched investigation and evidence tampering in the Jang Yoon-gi case.

According to the special investigation team tasked with uncovering the truth behind the Jang Yoon-gi case at the National Police Agency today (July 22), the search and seizure operations at offices including the Violent Crimes Investigation Division of the NOI continued until 11:50 p.m. last night.

The police raid, which began around 7:30 a.m., lasted for over 16 hours.

The targets of the search included the NOI's Violent Crimes Investigation Division, the Women and Juvenile Crimes Investigation Division, the offices of each division chief, and their subordinate units and organizations.

The Gwangju District Prosecutors Office also raided the NOI from 6:15 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. to investigate charges of leaking official secrets and tampering with evidence by police in connection with the Jang Yoon-gi case.

Both the prosecution and the police secured electronic data, such as reports and meeting materials from office PCs, as well as physical documents including memos.

It is reported that the prosecution arrived at the scene first to begin the search, and the police proceeded with their own search after observing the prosecution's execution of the warrant.

The police explained that since most of the items to be seized were digital electronic data, they could secure the same materials even if the prosecution executed the warrant first, as the process involves copying the data.

However, only the prosecution secured the mobile phones of the police officers affiliated with the NOI as part of their search.

It is reported that the police did not include mobile phones in their search warrant, considering that a previous warrant to search the mobile phone of the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner was rejected by the court, and they had planned to request voluntary submission if necessary.

As of now, the NOI officials involved are considered witnesses and have not been booked as suspects.

Within and outside investigative agencies, some are noting that it is unusual for a search and seizure warrant to be issued when the incumbent NOI officials have not been booked.

The prosecution and police plan to summon and question relevant individuals in earnest based on the results of the analysis of the seized materials.

This raid took place amid testimonies from police officers who were involved in the investigation at the time, claiming that the NOI had instructed them to separate the murder case from the past sexual assault case.

There was reportedly a review of a plan to consolidate the investigation with a sexual assault case filed with police in another region, but the case was assigned to the Women and Juvenile Crimes Division following instructions from the NOI.

The prosecution and police have determined that the failure to secure key evidence and the dismissal of major circumstances in the Jang Yoon-gi case were intentional, and they are each investigating whether the investigation command line at the time intervened.

However, authorities failed to secure the person of Superintendent A, who was the chief of the detective division at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station at the time of the Jang Yoon-gi case.

A pre-arrest interrogation for Superintendent A was held yesterday, but the arrest warrant was denied.

The special investigation team had sought to detain him, believing that he had poorly directed the investigation by ordering the separation of the murder and sexual assault cases, but the court determined that the justification was insufficient.

The special investigation team plans to devise a response after reviewing the reasons for the warrant's rejection.

After the interrogation, Superintendent A's legal representative claimed to reporters, "There were guidelines from the NOI regarding the separation of Jang Yoon-gi's sexual assault crimes and the murder case."

Jang Yoon-gi was arrested and indicted last May on charges of murdering high school sophomore Lee Chae-won in Gwangju, South Jeolla Province (charges including murder under the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Crimes).

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.