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Ji Chung-ho (center) was arrested on the spot.
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Bank employees leaked record of GNP head attacker: police
The police have stepped up efforts to investigate a press leak of financial information of Ji Chung-ho, 50, who attacked main opposition Grand National Party’s then-chairwoman Park Geun-hye ahead of the May 31 local-level elections. The Chosun Ilbo, a conservative daily, obtained the transaction data of Ji’s Korea Exchange Bank credit card and published it, raising suspicions of the existence of a co-conspirator based on the large expenditures. The Chosun Ilbo criticized the police investigation as ‘media suppression,’ while the bank denies that it provided Ji’s financial information to the media. The police, however, are confident that they can prove the allegation, saying that they have secured a statement from a bank employee about the matter. On July 18, after the investigation over the attack was completed - Ji was found to have acted alone - Ji told police that he wanted those who leaked his individual information to be punished.Following several weeks of query, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said yesterday, “We investigated nine employees of the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB)…and found that an official of KEB gave a Chosun Ilbo reporter the information at the reporter’s request.” KEB denied the leak by its staff member, saying that “the employees who were probed by the police checked Ji’s transaction for lawful reasons, and they did not provide the information to the Chosun Ilbo writer.’’ But the police didn’t believe KEB’s statement. A police official said, “The related bankers already admitted that they had leaked the information.’’ The police are going to further investigate whether or not the KEB workers received an order or consent from his seniors, he added. The police plan to investigate the Chosun Ilbo reporter who reported Ji’s financial transactions after obtaining the information. If the reporter disobeys the police summons, the police will seek a warrant of arrest, they said. Regarding this, Chosun Ilbo said, “We haven’t yet decided our official position, but we won’t reject the summons.’’ Under current law, employees of banking institutions should not disclose someone’s financial transaction records without his or her request or consent. In turn, a third party should not request financial institution employees to provide account and transaction information. Violators of the rules will be subject to a maximum prison term of five years and a fine of 30 million won (approximately 31,600 USD). Ji received a prison sentence of 11 years on August 3 for the knife attack, for which Park spent a week in the hospital.
