Jang Jung-gu was the world boxing champion of the 1980s.
After winning the WBC Light Flyweight World Championship in 1983, he made his 15th defense.
In 2009, he was the first Korean to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF).
Even calling him a 'legend', he is a great boxer who does not go too far.
But even the legendary champion could not escape the yardstick of the law.
Jang Jung-gu was arrested by the police on the night of August 20, 2021 for assaulting a taxi driver in a taxi near Seolleung Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
The taxi black box video obtained by SBS reporters contained scenes of Jang's assault at the time.
Jung-gu Jang, who was drunk and sleeping in the backseat of a taxi, started arguing with the taxi driver, saying, "I'm going to get scolded, what's the service?"
Then, Jang hit the taxi driver in the face and head several times with his hand and cell phone.
After receiving a report from a taxi driver, the police rushed to the scene and immediately arrested Jang.
He was charged with assaulting a driver while driving under the Specific Crime Aggravated Punishment Act (Special Price Act).
A police official explained that the taxi was seen as driving because the ignition was on.
In a phone call with SBS reporters the next day, Jang said, "I was drunk at the time, so I can't remember at all." But "I was unconditionally wrong."
But not long ago, there was an incident very similar to that of Jang Jung-gu. This is the case of former Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu's assault on a taxi driver. On November 6, 2020, Lee Yong-gu, who was working as a lawyer after completing the legal affairs office of the Ministry of Justice, assaulted a taxi driver in a taxi near an apartment complex in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Like Mr. Jang, he was sleeping in the backseat of a taxi drunk and then the taxi driver woke him up. As in the case of Jung-gu Jang, the taxi that Lee Yong-gu was riding was also in a state of ignition.
However, the case of former Vice Minister Lee Yong-koo was conducted in a completely different way from the case of former world champion Jang Jung-koo.
Jung-gu Jang was immediately charged with assaulting a driver while driving under the Special Act, but the charge of assaulting a driver while driving was not applied to former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu (until media reports were released). There was no criminal prosecution at all until a media report came out. Former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu remained unaccounted for on the day of the police incident and the next day, and reached an agreement with the taxi driver. Simply put, criminally, it was something that was not possible.
The Korean boxing legend was immediately arrested on charges of assaulting a driver under the Special Act when he assaulted a taxi driver in a taxi whose ignition was not turned off. However, in the current government, a lawyer who served as the head of the Justice Department at the Ministry of Justice and was once mentioned as a candidate for the Minister of Airborne Affairs and was acting as a lawyer for Baek Woon-gyu, former Minister of Industry and Trade, who was a key suspect in the Wolseong nuclear power plant incident at the time of the incident, assaulted a taxi driver in a taxi whose ignition was not turned off, but was arrested. It didn't happen.
The charge of assault on the driver was not applied under the Special Act, where punishment cannot be avoided even if an agreement is reached with the victim.
Rather, he was soon appointed as the deputy minister of justice.
(After the inauguration of the vice minister, the prosecution and the police re-investigated the case when the media raised suspicions about former Vice Minister Yong-gu Lee's assault on a taxi driver and the end of the internal investigation.) The
case of former world champion Jang Jung-gu is being investigated by the Seoul Gangnam Police Station.
If there are no special circumstances, the police will soon forward the case to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office with an opinion of indictment.
This is the usual way of handling cases.
In November last year, the Seoul Seocho Police Station closed an internal investigation into the case of former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu, but when a report came out in December of last year, the investigation was conducted again on suspicions of destruction of evidence, and the case was forwarded to the prosecution only in July of this year.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which received a complaint in December of last year, immediately after the media report, and started an investigation into former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu's assault on a driver, has yet to decide whether to prosecute.
Equally drunk, in a taxi with ignition on, he assaulted the taxi driver, but the boxing 'legend' was immediately prosecuted, and the 'core' of the Ministry of Justice and the regime were not charged. How many people think it's fair to not be prosecuted?
The core of prosecutorial reform and police reform is ultimately the fair exercise of the investigative and prosecuting powers.
Whether the current situation, which seems far from fair, is because the 'reform' failed to achieve its purpose or because the 'reform' achieved its original purpose too accurately will become clearer over time.