<Anchor>
Former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui, who had been suspicious of sexual hospitality at the villa, was blocked two years ago while attempting to leave the country through Incheon Airport at the end of midnight.
A prosecutor belonging to the prosecution's past photographic investigation team urgently imposed a ban on departure.
After that, former Vice Minister Kim, who was under a formal investigation, was handed over to trial for bribery and was sentenced to jail at the second trial and arrested.
However, controversy is growing as a public interest reporter argues that the process of banning departure at the time was illegal.
The prosecution, who had been silent for a while, said it would faithfully investigate.
Reporter Bae Joon-woo reported.
<Reporter> The
prosecution's past photographic investigation team blocked the departure of former Vice Minister Kim Hak-ui from the airport four days after the President's thorough investigation order was issued.
Since then, investigations and trials have been conducted on the alleged bribery of former Vice Minister Kim, and a complaint was filed by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office last month that the process of preventing Kim's departure was illegal.
The case number required for the emergency deportation action and the internal internal number on the request for approval are both fake.
It is also illegal for a prosecutor dispatched by a fact-finding team without the right to investigate, and there were suspicions that various prosecutors, including Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Lee Seong-yoon, who was the chief prosecutor's office at the time, intervened in the process of making up.
Some argue that the Ministry of Justice continued to inquire about Kim's departure from the country, and that it was illegal to inform other agencies.
The Ministry of Justice is in a position that it was an inevitable measure in an urgent situation, but it is also criticized that it is wrong to violate the procedure because the purpose is justified.
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office allocated the investigation of the complaints received to the Anyang District Office, but the case was redeployed to the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office on the 13th, a criticism that he had no intention to investigate.
I explained why it was to investigate objectively and fairly.
The purpose of this investigation is to reveal the legitimacy of the withdrawal process for Kim Hak's former vice minister, but the direction of the investigation is also drawing attention as the Ministry of Justice and senior prosecutors are being pointed out for the investigation.
(Video coverage: Seo Jin-ho, video editing: Park Jeong-sam, screen provided: JTBC)