hankyoreh

It has been confirmed that a citizen who uploaded onto his blog a video criticizing President Lee Myung-bak has been illegally investigated by the Prime Minister’s Office. This investigation included pressure to suspend his bank transactions to ruin his business. In the end, he was also reportedly forced out as head of the business he was running. In short, the Lee Myung-bak administration has created a completely lawless world where neither law nor procedure any longer have meaning.

This matter, which began in the fall of 2008, was carried out from start to finish through illegal measures in evasion of the law. First, the Prime Minister’s Office public ethics office strangely intervened in a matter completely unrelated to official ethics to illegally investigate a civilian.

The Prime Minister’s Office went directly to the office of the citizen, identified as Mr. Kim, and seized his accounting books. The Prime Minister’s Office acted as both prosecutor and investigator. They failed to even pretend to follow Prime Minister’s Office regulations, to say nothing of a warrant as required by the Criminal Procedure Law. Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Office met with high officials from the bank Kim’s company had a contract with to put pressure on them. Their infractions of the law, including abuse of authority, are far from few.

This incident clearly illustrates the way in which prosecutors and the police frame innocent citizens. The Dongjak Police Station, which was asked by the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an investigation, reportedly did not press charges initially. After some time, however, the police chief ordered a re-investigation, and went so far as to change the investigators in charge of carrying out the investigation.

It is clear that the Prime Minister’s Office grilled the police. In the end, the police sent Kim to the prosecutors with the charge of slander under the Telecommunications Law, and prosecutors did not clear him, but rather gave him a stay of indictment. The Prime Minister’s Office, police and prosecutors have conspired to frame an innocent citizen as a criminal. It is a truly frightening and hair-raising world when a man can be this thoroughly punished just for uploading a video onto his blog that had already been viewed by more than 2 million people.

The Prime Minister’s Office told the National Assembly yesterday that the investigation into a civilian was a mistake, and that they would learn what happened, but this is not something that can be skipped over so evasively. The entire process, from the illegal investigation by the Prime Minister’s Office to the police and prosecutor’s “contract investigation,” must be investigated in detail and those responsible identified and sternly punished. Naturally, compensation for the victim must also follow.

President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday that South Korea could not become a leading developed nation while the human rights of the people are being ignored. He is absolutely correct. A country in which something like this happens would fail to achieve status as a third-rate country, let alone an advanced, first-rate one. The people will watch to see how this matter is handled.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]