Last week prosecutors arrested Lim Chang Wook, honorary chairman of the Daesang Group, on charges of embezzling company money. Early last year they were investigating when strangely they suddenly called it off, and now when a court has judged that there is already ample evidence to prove guilt they are on a new investigation. The new inquiry is revealing there was a lot wrong with the first one. Such is the case and still top prosecution officials are not being clear on whether they are going to look into the actions of the prosecution team responsible for the initial investigation.
There is much about the way the earlier investigation was halted that would be hard to view as a simple mistake. Prosecutors got an arrest warrant and were acting confident about getting a conviction. Then all of a sudden they called everything off, saying the fact important witnesses had taken flight overseas was going to make it hard to prove Lim's guilt in court. That created even more talk since it happened immediately before Lim's relative by marriage, Hong Seok Jo, arrived as the new chief prosecutor in the district of jurisdiction. Now, two months after the second investigation got started, officials find that Lim had embezzled an additional W14 billion. That, too, speaks of how something was wrong with the first investigation.
"Just because the results of the investigations are different does not mean you by definition have to hold someone responsible," says Supreme Public Prosecutor General Kim Jong Bin, but that is flawed logic. Someone has profound responsibility to bear if a criminal who will clearly be convicted is deliberately not indicted, unlike when someone accused has been indicted only to later be found innocent, because it upsets the country's legal order if prosecutors are using the monopoly they have on the authority to issue indictments to let persons with influence go free.
They say that the prosecution is not considerably freer from political authority, but it continues to be accused of being weak when it comes to investigating and applying the law to jaebeols. If the prosecution wants to avoid that kind of criticism then officials there will have to perform an inquiry into the activities of the team responsible for the first investigation and punish anyone who acted inappropriately. Trying to protect fellow prosecutors will seriously damage the whole organization.
The Hankyoreh, 5 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Investigate the Prosecutors in Lim Case |
