“I didn’t know what the disciplinary committee would be.”

Jeong Han-joong, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies School of Law, who is the chairman of the Attorney General of Attorney General Yoon Seok-yeol, leaves the Ministry of Justice in Gwacheon City, Gyeonggi-do, after completing the disciplinary committee on the 10th. Reporter Kim Sang-sun

It was confirmed that Hanjoong Jeong, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who served as chairman of the Ministry of Justice’s Prosecutor’s Disciplinary Committee in which the disciplinary action of Attorney General Yoon Seok-yeol was discussed, is a non-director. executive of the Ministry of Justice. Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu, who served as a member of the disciplinary committee, also served as a non-executive director of the industrial complex.

According to the Ministry of Justice on the 14th, Professor Jeong Han-jung was elected director in April following the proposal of President Joo-young Jang and the appointment of the Minister of Justice, Chu Mi-ae. President Joo-young Jang, appointed in January 2019, served as President of the Lawyers for Democratic Society (Minbyun) from 2012 to 2014.

There are six non-executive directors of the Corporation, and they only receive the cost of attending two or more meetings a year without pay. Since August 2017, Vice Minister of Justice Yong-gu Yong-gu, who has served as the head of the Justice Department of the Ministry of Justice, has served as the non-executive director of the Industrial Complex naturally. Then, in April, when he resigned as head of the Office of Legal Affairs, he retired from the director of the corporation. Professor Jeong Han-jung’s tenure overlaps for several days just before resigning. An official at the industrial complex said: “Because board meetings are held in March and November each year, we have never met.”

The Ministry of Justice is the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Justice. It is a public institution that supports trials and legal matters by government departments or state agencies. 60 lawyers are working. Since it is a corporation acting on behalf of the state against lawsuits, private law firms often criticize them for “taking their jobs away.”

Prosecutor and Disciplinary Committee of Attorney General Yoon Seok-yeol[연합뉴스]

In the academic world, among Professor Han-jung Jeong’s works registered in the Supreme Court’s literary information system, they also looked for the “ optional mock questions recorded by cases for the fifth bar exam ” and the “ Explanation of the record type questions of the fourth bar exam ”. Concerns are raised that the quality is questionable. “A professor at the National Law School said:” The university professor who was a member of the disciplinary committee resigned earlier this month and a lawyer who was a judge did not appear in the disciplinary committee on the day 10. I was in a hurry. ”

President Yoon’s part maintains that the composition of the committee at the time of the first deliberation also has legal problems, insisting that the deliberation must be repeated from the beginning. According to the Prosecutor’s Disciplinary Law, the disciplinary committee consists of 7 members, including the chairman, and it is argued that since Minister Chu Mi-ae was removed as a disciplinary plaintiff that day, a member of the committee should have been added. reserve to fill all 7 members. Based on the provisions of the Disciplinary Law of the Prosecutor’s Office, which establishes that there will be three preliminary members, a request for disclosure of information will be made asking if and when the current disciplinary committee has selected a preliminary member.

President Jeong Han-jung also told JoongAng Ilbo on the 11th, “I didn’t know if it would be me” and “I was going to do it.” It is an explanation that implies the possibility that he was commissioned suddenly after not serving as a member of the preliminary committee. However, the disciplinary committee is faced with saying that Minister Chu’s membership status is recognized as it is, and deliberation can be initiated if the ‘majority attendance (4 of 7)’ condition is met even without naming a member. backup. Regarding the criticism of not filling the vacancy of the disciplinary commission as a preliminary member, he clarified that “we minimize the change in composition as far as possible because fairness in the composition of the commission is a problem in this case.”

However, a lawyer for Seocho-dong said: “Since no one is a member of the preliminary committee to be in charge of the prosecutor level, the Ministry of Justice would have had to proceed with the matter in a vacant state. Said.

Reporter Kim Minsang [email protected]