Investigator calls acquittal of former police chief “completely unexpected and shocking”

Posted on : 2014-02-08 14:29 KST Modified on : 2014-02-08 14:29 KST
Kwon Eun-hee says the court didn’t adequately consider the evidence that Kim Yong-pan obstructed investigation into election interference
 head of investigation at the Songpa Police Department
head of investigation at the Songpa Police Department

By Jung Hwan-bong, staff reporter

After Kim Yong-pan, former commissioner of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was found not guilty by the lower court, Kwon Eun-hee, head of investigation at the Songpa Police Department in Seoul, openly protested the decision, referring to it as “completely unexpected and shocking.” When Kwon was serving as the head of investigation at the Suseo Police Department, Kim was put on trial on charges of obstructing the police investigation of the National Intelligence Service’s illegal interference in the 2012 presidential election.

At a press conference held on the morning of Feb. 7 at the Songpa Police Station in Seoul, Kwon said, “It seems to me that the court gave little if any consideration to the evidence I submitted as the person in charge of the investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s online election interference, evidence suggesting that the scale down and delay in the police investigation had an effect on the presidential election.”

“Since I haven’t seen the court’s justification for its decision yet and only came across it in the newspaper, I can’t offer a detailed position,” said Kwon. However, she added that facts and legal issues could still be reviewed during the two remaining appeals, promising to do her best as the police officer in charge of the investigation to ensure that a clear and legal decision was made on the points that the lower level court failed to consider or that it didn’t adequately consider.

Kwon also responded strongly to the court’s decision that her testimony that Kim had improperly intervened in the investigation was not credible because it contradicted the testimony of the other police officers questioned in the trial. “In a crime that involves duty, it is ordinary for the testimony of the people involved not to be consistent,” Kwon said. “If the court found Kim to be not guilty because my testimony was different from what other people said, it is doubtful whether it adequately considered the nature of this sort of crime during the trial.”

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