Special Prosecutor Cha Sang-byeong to summon former Minister Jo Tae-yeol soon for 'Lee Jong-seop escape involvement'... 'Im Seong-geun, investigation obstruction'

[Financial News] Special Prosecutor Team Cha Sang-byeong (Lee Myung-hyun, Special Prosecutor) plans to summon former Minister of Foreign Affairs Jo Tae-yeol soon to investigate the 'escape allegations' related to the appointment process of Lee Jong-seop as Ambassador to Australia.
Special Prosecutor Jeong Min-young announced at a regular briefing on the 19th that they plan to proceed with the selection process of seized items for Jo, who is a suspect in the charges of aiding and abetting escape and abuse of authority.
The special prosecutor team is also expected to conduct a suspect investigation on Jo. Special Prosecutor Jeong explained, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled all practical procedures related to the qualification review of special envoys, the appointment of the ambassador to Australia, departure, return, and resignation," and "we investigated the overall handling of duties, including the qualification review of envoys, targeting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff."
Previously, on the 4th, the special prosecutor seized Jo's mobile phone and vehicle. Jo is suspected of being involved in the process where Lee, who was under a travel ban, obtained a diplomatic passport and was appointed and departed as ambassador to Australia.
The special prosecutor has been investigating a significant number of people involved in the qualification review of envoys and maintains that Jo's investigation does not conclude the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-related investigation.
On the morning of this day, the special prosecutor summoned Yoo Jae-eun, former Ministry of National Defense legal officer, who was involved in the investigation pressure allegations related to Cha, for the second time following the previous day. At 1:30 PM, they summoned Kim Dong-hyeok, former Ministry of National Defense prosecutor, for the fifth time. Kim is identified as a person involved in the process of retrieving and re-investigating the investigation records of Cha, which were transferred to the police.
On the 20th at 9:30 AM, they plan to summon Im Gi-hoon, former National Security Office defense secretary. Im was present at the chief secretary meeting presided over by the president on July 31 last year and is known to have testified that former President Yoon Seok-yeol was 'furious' after receiving the initial investigation results of the Marine Corps investigation team. At the same time, Yeom Bo-hyeon, a military prosecutor in charge of the investigation and prosecution of Colonel Park Jeong-hoon, head of the Marine Corps investigation team, will also be investigated.
Meanwhile, the special prosecutor strongly criticized Im Seong-geun, former commander of the 1st Marine Division, who disclosed the full transcript of the suspect interrogation report recorded the previous day on an internet cafe. Im posted the special prosecutor's investigation report conducted on the 7th and 11th, where he exercised his right to remain silent 398 times.
Special Prosecutor Jeong stated, "We consider this a serious obstruction of the investigation," and "while it is allowed for a suspect to take notes for memory recall during the investigation, recording the investigation content and disclosing it in full to an unspecified number of people is a clear act of investigation obstruction." The special prosecutor is considering additional responses, including booking Im for 'obstruction of investigation.'



scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter