Instructed by the Ministry of Justice to strictly respond to road violence when the head of the Legal Affairs Office Yong-gu Lee

In the early morning of the 16th, Vice Minister Lee left the government building after completing the disciplinary committee against Attorney General Yoon Seok-yeol. [뉴스1]

The fact that the Ministry of Justice ordered a “ thorough investigation of a highway robbery ” when Lee was serving as head of the Department of Justice amid fierce criticism for the “ finalization of internal affairs ” of the police against Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu (54) of the Ministry of Justice. As it emerges, the ripples grow. At the same time, there are doubts about how to trust the police investigation, the authority of which has increased due to the adjustment of the investigative power of the prosecutor, along with the fact that this is the dual attitude of Vice Minister Lee.

According to the JoongAng Ilbo report of the 20th, the Ministry of Justice revealed in August last year that “since January 2017 at the latest, a total of 4,922 people were arrested for violating the Law of Weighted Punishment for Specific Crimes (assault on the driver , etc.), and 104 of them were arrested. ” In the case of the Ministry of Justice, there was a case in which a suspect was arrested who threw a coin after taking an oath to a taxi driver.

In the legal world, the prevailing view is that the case of assault of a taxi driver by Vice Minister Lee falls under the ‘assault on the special pricing law’ presented in the press release at the time. According to police, in early November, Vice Minister Lee assaulted a taxi driver who woke him up while drinking alcohol in front of an apartment in Seocho-gu, Seoul for no reason. Subsequently, the police filed a petition against punishment stating that the taxi driver did not want punishment. Due to the decision to exclude yourself from meaning while driving, the company closed internal affairs with a simple assault case without enforcing the special pricing law. Applying the current Special Law, the loan could be sentenced to imprisonment for up to five years or fined up to 20 million won.

It was revealed that the Ministry of Justice ordered a “ strict highway robbery ” and distributed press releases when Vice Minister Yong-gu Yong-gu, who was controversial as a taxi driver, served as head of the legal department. [사진 법무부]

Representative Kim Woong, a former prosecutor, said: “At the time of the order (to thoroughly investigate the violence on the road), this deputy minister was the head of the Justice Department of the Ministry of Justice.” “We have to order an investigation into the Seocho-seo,” he said.

Several chief prosecutors of the practicing penal department said: “According to the Special Privileges Act, 90% of cases of assault by drivers sent to the prosecution are assaults while stopping.” Although there are clear regulations in article 5, paragraph 10 of the Special Privileges Law, it is unreasonable logic to close internal affairs because it has reached its destination ”.

A lawyer for a former chief prosecutor said: “Since the police ended the internal investigation, the prosecution could not leak it.” On the 19th, the solidarity action to straighten the rule of law (sophistication of the law) accused Lee of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

In this process, the controversy arose over the Constitutional Constitutional Decision of 2017, which the police proposed as the basis for the closure of internal affairs. This is because the object of judgment of the constitutional decision at that time was the Special Act before the revision in 2015. Consequently, it was pointed out that the police applied the constitutional decision before the reform to the case of the Vice Minister, which was carried out after the revision of the Special Prices Law, to distort justice and principles. It was in the amendment to the Special Offers Act that came into force in June 2015 that the scope of “in operation”, which is subject to penalties under the Special Offers Act, includes “when the driver temporarily stops for that passengers get on or off. ” The person who actively lobbied for the revision of the special pricing law was candidate Jeon Jeon-cheol, Minister of Public Administration and Security, who was secretary of the opposition judicial committee. In April of that year, the Ministry of Justice issued a dissenting opinion in the so-called Judicial Commission of the National Assembly, saying: “It has already been interpreted through precedents, so there is not much need.” However, the former candidate pointed out that the law was a problem because the syntax of the law was not clear.

Reporters Kim Soo-min, Jung Yu-jin, and Kim Hong-beom [email protected]