In response to the court decision acquitting the production team of “PD Notebook,” prosecutors are expressing outrage, and Prosecutor General Kim Jun-gyu convened a meeting of Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) officials to verbally blast the court. Prosecutors are showing no signs of introspection or reflection, however, despite a series of acquittals in political cases in which prosecutors made rash indictments.
Kim convened a meeting of SPO high officials on Wednesday afternoon. Instructing the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office to appeal, Kim called for a “thorough response.” Cho Eun-seok, spokesman for the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) said Kim made unusually strong statements for a prosecutor general, in saying it seems many citizens are concerned about the court’s decision. Shin Gyeong-sik, a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, called the court’s decision difficult to understand. Shin said that not only were the PD Notebook production team’s distortions proven by evidence, but even those involved partially acknowledged the charges. Shin said even though it was a civil trial, the Seoul High Court had previously acknowledged that the content of PD Notebook’s report was “partially inaccurate,” and that he could not understand how a court could come to a completely different decision over the same facts.
Prosecutors, their controversial investigation of PD Notebook thus completely defeated, are also displaying a great deal of embarassment. Prosecutors, who ignored criticism they were acting as government hit men, and, declaring their confidence in the matter, made issue of several parts of the PD Notebook report. However, because the court decided not to uphold their charges, it seems likely that they will be unable to avoid taking a hit publically. Seoul Central Prosecutor Financial and Tax Investigation Division 1 head Jeon Hyeon-jun, who indicted the production team of PD Notebook last year as head of the 6th criminal division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, skipped lunch today to work on a response. Posecutors are receiving criticism for their failure to reflect, failing to mention their rash investigations and indictments despite a recent string of acquittals in political cases.
The first trials of a string of major defendants investigated and indicted by prosecutors in accordance with the Lee Myung-bak administration’s policy tenor, such as former Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) president Jung Yun-joo, “Minerva” blogger Park Dae-sung, Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Chairman Kang Ki-kab and the Korea Teachers and Educational Workers Union (KTU) teachers who issued emergency statements all ended with acquittals. In many of these cases, the decisions showed that the acquittals went beyond simply confirming the facts and providing legal interpretations and pointed out prosecutors’ unreasonable applications of the law. In each of these cases, however, prosecutors simply responded by raising their voices in criticism of the judiciary, complaining they could not begin to understand the decisions.
In response, Seo Bo-hak, law professor of Kyunghee University, said the prosecutors’ unreasonable investigations and indictments were being revealed through the decisions, and that he believes that the judiciary is recently showing a rejection of the selective indictment of individuals in accordance with government requests. According to Seo, ideologically biased justices are not, as the prosecutors suggest, handing down decisions.
Lee Sang-don, law professor of Chung-Ang University and a conservative figure, also said on his blog today that the acquittals of Jung, Kang and the teachers’ union members were largely caused by prosecutors’ rash indictments.
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