NEC official buckles under special counsel pressure ... Grade 5 civil servant under investigation jumps to his death from home

【Financial News, Hwaseong = Reporter Jang Chung-sik】 A Grade 5 civil servant with the National Election Commission (NEC), who was being investigated by Lee Tae-han’s special counsel team on suspicion of bid-rigging and breach of trust in the course of business, was found dead after leaving a note expressing his sense of injustice, sending shockwaves through the special counsel’s investigation.
According to police and legal sources on the 21st, a resident found and reported the body of A, a man in his 40s who was a Grade 5-level official in the NEC’s Election Infrastructure Division, in the flower bed of an apartment complex in Bongdam-eup, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, at around 7:06 a.m. that day.
Police believe A jumped from a high floor of the apartment where he lived and are investigating the exact circumstances.
The note found at the scene reportedly expressed the mental anguish and sense of injustice he felt during the special counsel team’s investigation.
A, who was found dead, appeared before Lee Tae-han’s special counsel team the previous morning as a suspect facing allegations of obstructing bidding and breach of trust in the course of business, and was questioned.
The special counsel team had uncovered allegations of favoritism and bid-rigging involving service contracts for election supplies—including early-voting ballot boxes and polling-place information notices—used in the previous presidential and local elections, and had been narrowing its investigation to internal NEC organizations.
A was found to have completed questioning as a suspect at around 8:55 p.m. the previous day, with his lawyer present. After spending about an hour and 45 minutes reviewing and carefully reading the suspect-interrogation record, he returned home at around 10:40 p.m. But just a few hours after arriving home, he took his own life, prompting some to question whether the special counsel had conducted an excessive or coercive investigation.
Shortly after the incident, the special counsel team expressed its profound condolences for the deceased and said there had been no undue pressure during the investigation. It stated officially, “The entire questioning process was conducted properly, including the suspect’s review and revision of the record at his own request, and there were no coercive circumstances whatsoever.”
[email protected]