Prosecutors investigating allegations of a botched police probe into the Jang Yoon-gi case have launched a raid on the National Office of Investigation (NOI).

The dedicated investigation team at the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Kim Bong-jin, began executing search and seizure warrants at approximately 6:15 a.m. today (July 21), targeting the offices of the heads of the Violent Crime Investigation Division and the Women and Juvenile Crime Investigation Division under the NOI's Criminal Affairs Bureau.

The prosecution intends to investigate allegations of leaking official secrets and destruction of evidence by police during the initial investigation into the Jang Yoon-gi case.

Previously, police officers on the investigation team testified that the NOI had instructed them to separate the investigation of Jang Yoon-gi's murder case from his past sex crime cases.

While a plan to consolidate the investigation with a sexual assault case filed at a police station in another region was reviewed at the time, the case was ultimately assigned to the Women and Juvenile Division following orders from the NOI, which resulted in Jang Yoon-gi being referred to the prosecution on charges of general murder, which carries a relatively lighter sentence.

The prosecution suspects that there was an intentional failure in the investigation, such as the omission of key evidence and the dismissal of major circumstances in the Jang Yoon-gi case, and is investigating whether the police command, including the NOI and the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency, intervened.

It is reported that the NOI official subject to the compulsory investigation is currently considered a witness.

About an hour after the prosecution began its raid on the NOI, the police's own special investigation team also initiated a search and seizure of the NOI starting at 7:30 a.m.

The police obtained a separate warrant from the prosecution and are reportedly proceeding with their procedures after observing the execution of the search by the prosecution, which arrived at the scene first.

The prosecution previously conducted raids on the offices of the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency commissioner and the head of the investigation department on July 15.

With the investigation now extending from the regional police agency to the National Office of Investigation, the command center overseeing all police investigative work nationwide, the probe into the alleged botched handling of the Jang Yoon-gi case is expected to gain momentum.

(Photo: Yonhap News)