"Followed National Office of Investigation Guidelines": Arrest Warrant for Former Detective Chief Dismissed

[Anchor]

An arrest warrant for the former chief of the detective division at Gwangsan Police Station, who initially oversaw the Jang Yoon-gi case, has been dismissed. As he was the direct supervisor who approved the investigation team's work, the dismissal suggests that the police investigation may not be proceeding as planned.

Reporter An Huijae has the story.

[Reporter]

Superintendent Park, the former chief of the detective division at Gwangsan Police Station, appeared for his arrest warrant hearing on the morning of July 21.

While expressing his apologies to the victim and the bereaved family, he maintained that there were no improper orders.

[Park / Former Chief of Detective Division, Gwangsan Police Station: There were no improper orders from above during the case handling process, and I did not issue any such orders either.]

Park is accused of overseeing a flawed investigation, including forwarding the case against Jang Yoon-gi with charges of simple murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison, rather than murder for the purpose of rape, which would have allowed for life imprisonment or the death penalty.

However, Park strongly denies the allegations.

He claimed that there were guidelines from the National Office of Investigation (NOI) to separate Jang Yoon-gi's sexual assault crimes from the murder case.

[The Attorney / Legal Counsel for Park: The National Office of Investigation issued guidelines on three separate occasions to not merge the cases, so we only handled the general case.]

An official from the Violent Crime Investigation Division of the National Office of Investigation explained to the press, "The intent was for the detective division and the women and youth affairs division within the same Gwangsan Police Station to cooperate."

Regarding the claim that the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency had requested a review of applying the charge of murder for the purpose of rape, the official drew a line, stating, "No, that did not happen."

The police special investigation unit had requested an arrest warrant for Park on charges of abuse of power and dereliction of duty, believing he exerted influence between the already-arrested investigation team leader and the Gwangsan Police Station chief. However, the court dismissed the warrant, stating that the necessity for detention was not recognized.

With the failure to secure custody of Park, analysts suggest that the special investigation unit's probe into the higher-ups, including the former Gwangsan Police Station chief, has hit a roadblock.

(Video reporting: Joo Beom, Choi Dae-woong | Video editing: Oh Young-taek)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.