Court Orders Release of Jeju Police Officer Arrested Over Falsified Missing Persons Cases

A court has issued a release order today (the 24th) for an active-duty police officer in Jeju who was urgently arrested for falsely closing a missing person case he was in charge of.

The Jeju District Court accepted the request for a review of the legality of the arrest and ruled in its favor after completing the interrogation today.

The Jeju District Court stated, "As a result of the interrogation, we judged the arrest to be illegal as it lacked 'urgency,' which is a requirement for emergency arrests under the Criminal Procedure Act."

The court explained that while an emergency arrest can be made when there is no time to obtain an arrest warrant—such as when a suspect is unexpectedly discovered—Officer A's whereabouts had been continuously tracked, meaning there was sufficient time to obtain an arrest warrant.

Consequently, Officer A, who was being held in a detention cell at the Jeju Dongbu Police Station, will immediately undergo procedures for release.

Officer A filed for the arrest legality review with the court on the 23rd, the day after his emergency arrest.

An arrest legality review is a system that allows a suspect to request the court to review their release when they believe an investigative agency's arrest is unjustified.

The specific reasons why Officer A requested the review have not been disclosed.

However, as a lawyer hired by Officer A reportedly accompanied him to the review hearing, it is interpreted that Officer A intended to mount a legal defense against the arrest.

A prosecutor from the Jeju District Prosecutors' Office also attended the review hearing.

Officer A, who was being held at the Jeju Dongbu Police Station, boarded a transport vehicle bound for the court at 10 a.m. today.

Emerging tied with a restraining rope, wearing a blue top and black bottoms, Officer A kept his head bowed and remained silent in response to reporters' questions such as, "Do you admit to the charges?," "What is the reason for requesting the review?," and "Do you have anything to say to the bereaved families?"

Officer A is suspected of lying to a reporter in May by claiming he had "made contact" with Jang Mi-ran (37), who was reported missing, before arbitrarily closing the case and deleting Jang's data from the missing person profiling system's management list.

He is also suspected of falsely closing another missing person case involving an individual identified as B on July 2nd using a method similar to the one used in Jang's case.

Following the discovery of B's body at an undisclosed location in Jeju on the 22nd, police recovered a body presumed to be Jang in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, this morning.

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