Auto insurance companies have accident handlers.
One of their main tasks is to minimize the responsibility of the customer in charge in the event of a traffic accident and strictly follow the responsibility of the driver of the other vehicle.
But what happens if the driver of the other vehicle is the president of the company to which he belongs?
Can you strictly hold the responsibility of the owner of your company, the driver of the other vehicle, and handle the case in a way that minimizes the responsibility of your customers?
Even if we do things according to the principle, not only will we have to bear a considerable burden in the process, but the results themselves will inevitably cause doubts about the fairness of our customers.
A similar incident occurred on May 26 at the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Court.
One of the defendants who appeared in court that day was the incumbent Justice Minister Park Beom-gye, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
Opposite Minister Park Bum-gye were public prosecutors, public officials in which Minister Park Bum-gye exercised his powers.
Their task was to prove in front of a judge that Minister Park Bum-gye had committed a crime such as assault.
Of course, the prosecutors must have done their best that day.
However, it would have been difficult and embarrassing to shout, 'You have committed a crime in the National Assembly,' in front of the minister who controls his personnel.
The reality that the defendant prosecuted by the prosecutor became the prosecutor's personnel authority
Why did this happen? This is because the criminal defendant, who the prosecution concluded was the person who committed the crime, was appointed to the position of Minister of Justice, who oversees the prosecution and exercises personnel authority over the prosecution. Previously, it was common sense to resign as justice minister if there was any possibility that you or your family could be prosecuted. This is the reason why there have been several cases where a person who served as Minister of Justice has been prosecuted, but there has never been a case where he was prosecuted while holding the position of Minister of Justice and became a criminal defendant. However, in the case of Minister Park Beom-gye, he was appointed Minister of Justice after he had already been charged with assault in connection with the National Assembly Fast Track case. From the time of his appointment, the awkward and inappropriate things he had to face in court with the prosecutors he exercised had already been scheduled.
Minister Park Bum-gye is not the only person who is currently in a position to lead prosecutors among those referred to trial by the prosecution saying they are guilty of crimes. The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office Chief Lee Seong-yoon, one of the most prominent figures in the personnel appointments made by Minister Park Beom-gye on the 4th, is also a defendant in a criminal trial. This is because he was indicted on the 12th of May on charges of exerting external pressure on the investigation of Kim Hak's illegal departure ban. However, unlike the case of Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, who was excluded from his duties as soon as the investigation began in relation to the Channel A case, the Ministry of Justice did not exclude Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon from his duties, but promoted him to the chief of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, the highest-ranking chief among the nation's high prosecutors.
The personnel appointments for Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun are not only a problem in the symbolic level that the person who should be excluded from the job has been promoted.
The Seoul High Prosecutor's Office, which will be led by Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun, is carrying out the prosecution of Deputy Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, who was brought to trial for assaulting Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon in the course of investigating Chief Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon under the direction of Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun.
The Seoul High Prosecutor's Office, who must prove the guilt of Deputy Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong in court, will be under the direct direction of Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon, who instructed Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong to investigate Chief Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon.
In addition, the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office is also conducting an investigation into the alleged violation of the Personal Information Protection Act by Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon.
This is because Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon was accused of providing information in an illegal way to the Ministry of Justice, which was pushing for disciplinary action against former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol.
Of course, when Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun takes office as chief of the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office, it is expected that he will formally evade his duties in the cases in which he has been involved.
However, it would not be appropriate to appoint a person who had no choice but to evade his duties in a major case handled by the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office as the head of the Seoul High Prosecutor's Office in the first place.
Few would believe that prosecutors at Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, who would be under the direction of Senior Prosecutor Seong-yoon Lee for all other matters, would be able to carry out duties related to Prosecutor Seong-yoon Lee without any burden just because they formally evaded their duties.
Achieved 'Defendant Triple Crown'...
Could a 'Grand Slam' be possible?
However, it is not the case of Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon that is the first case in which a defendant charged by a prosecutor transferred to a position to lead other prosecutors. Jin-woong Jeong, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office, mentioned briefly earlier, is actually the first case. In the prosecutor's office, the deputy chief prosecutor of the prosecutor's office is the number 2 position of the prosecutor's office. Most of the practical investigation orders and approvals are handled by the Deputy Prosecutor, not the Prosecutor General. However, the Ministry of Justice transferred Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong, who was accused of assaulting Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon on his own during the search and seizure process, from his personnel appointment in August last year to the number 2 deputy chief prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office. The person charged with the prosecution set a precedent for guiding and directing other prosecutors.
Park Beom-gye, Lee Seong-yoon, Jeong Jin-woong, and these three people alone have achieved the 'triple crown' in which three criminal defendants are included in the key positions of the Justice-Prosecutor's Office, but the Ministry of Justice is arguably the 'Grand Slam', which places as many as four criminal defendants in important positions. ' was almost written. This is because, following the police arrest of former Vice Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu on charges of destroying evidence, SBS released a video of Lee's assault on a taxi driver, raising the possibility of prosecution for 'attacking a driver while driving' under the special law of former Vice Minister Lee. Fortunately, the Ministry of Justice was able to avoid writing an unprecedented record of the 'Defendant Grand Slam' because former Vice Minister Lee Yong-koo resigned himself, saying, "The Justice Prosecutor's Office also needs a new worker."
Of course, every citizen has the right to be presumed innocent until the verdict is finalized.
However, the National Tax Service does not appoint a person accused of tax evasion as the head of the National Tax Service.
Even if the National Tax Service files a complaint, it is presumed to be innocent of the tax evasion charge until the tax evasion charge is confirmed in a criminal trial.
It is also unimaginable for a court to appoint a person who has been referred to a criminal trial or convicted in the first instance as the Chief of the Court Administration Office or the Chief Justice of the Seoul High Court.
Even if you have been referred to a criminal trial or the results of the first trial have been obtained, it is not a conviction that you have been convicted.
The same should be true for the appointment of persons charged by the prosecution to high-ranking positions in the judicial-prosecutor's office.
The principle of presumption of innocence is a principle of the rights that a criminal accused must be guaranteed in the course of a trial, not a criterion for state agencies to consider in relation to the personnel of high-ranking public officials charged with prosecution.
It is just unrealistic to have to seriously explain such a natural story from the beginning.
'Mafia Loyalty' and 'Higher Loyalty'
Nevertheless, what is the real reason why defendants such as Minister Park Bum-gye, Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun, and Deputy Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong were appointed to key positions in the Justice-Prosecutor's Office? Loyalty. No matter what obstacles they face, no matter how unreasonable they are, even if they are referred to a criminal trial, their loyalty to carrying out the tasks assigned by the personnel authority to the end is probably the reason why they were selected. In particular, in the case of Prosecutor General Lee Seong-yoon and Deputy Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong, they were referred to a criminal trial for what they did in the process of carrying out the tasks desired by the personnel authority or staff members of the personnel authority, so if the standard of personnel management was 'loyalty', it would have been natural to be compensated.
James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under the U.S. Department of Justice, described in his memoir, A Higher Loyalty, an experience of being overtly demanded by personnel officers. Comey said he was told when he met Trump at the White House on January 27, 2017, a week after he took office, "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty." At the time, the FBI was investigating allegations of Russian intelligence involvement in the Trump campaign.
Comey said, "What Trump is asking for is something like a Cosa Nostra (Mafia) membership ceremony."
Ex-Director Comey's memoir titled 'A Higher Loyalty' also made it clear that his loyalty was not toward the president, but toward the value of justice, which the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice must uphold. it was for
(Of course, President Trump sacked Comey, who had been more loyal, shortly thereafter.)
What kind of loyalty is expected of them?
When they appointed Minister Park Beom-gye, Prosecutor Lee Seong-yun, and Deputy Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woong, who were criminal defendants, to the positions of commanding various prosecutors, what kind of loyalty did the person in charge of personnel expect from them?
Was it President Trump's 'Mafia Loyalty' or what former FBI Director Comey called 'A Higher Loyalty'?
The answer will be obvious.
However, in this article, I would like to replace the answer by quoting a passage from a statement issued by the representatives of lawyers whose business is to fight the innocence and innocence against prosecutors.
"(Strategy) In this personnel appointment of the Ministry of Justice, the fact that the high-ranking executive is not excluded from the investigation, but rather has been appointed to a position that can directly or indirectly influence the investigation and trial of himself goes beyond the laxity of public office discipline and enhances the fairness of the trial. It is very worrying because it undermines the prosecution's core values of political neutrality and undermines the
prosecution's political neutrality and professionalism in order for the prosecution system to match the maturity of democracy under the rule of law and to faithfully fulfill its original functions of eradicating corruption and protecting human rights. The world knows that guaranteeing independence and securing functions are the key.If the
people do not trust the impartiality of the prosecution's personnel of the Ministry of Justice, eventually the people will not trust the results of the prosecution's investigation and prosecution, which is the rule of law. It will inevitably be criticized for undermining the foundation and foundation of the Ministry of Justice itself. (omitted)
June 5, 2021 Lee Jong-yeop, President of the Korean Bar Association
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