“Who Would Believe It When an Ordinary Police Officer’s Claim Directs an Investigation?”
Lee Sung-kwon, a member of the People Power Party, criticized President Lee Jae-myung for allegedly ordering an investigation based on an “absurd claim” made by Senior Inspector Baek Hae-ryong regarding external pressure in customs drug investigations. Lee accused the administration of making the judicial system lawless.
In a Facebook post on the 17th, Lee stated, “President Lee Jae-myung undermines the national judicial system by directly ordering investigations based on the ridiculous claims of a mere police officer.”
He further criticized the decision to grant Baek the authority to lead an investigation, saying, “It is absurd that instead of discouraging Baek, who is involved in the suspicions, from joining the investigation team, he has been handed direct investigative power. Baek went further by denouncing the existing investigation team as an ‘illegal group.’ He skipped his first day of work and demanded a new investigation team to be formed for him.”
Lee also condemned the current head of the investigation team, Im Eun-jung, the chief prosecutor of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, who was accused by Baek of leading an “illegal group.” Calling Im a representative figure disrupting the judicial order, Lee criticized her defiance of the Justice Minister’s warnings about her “political conduct.”
Lee argued that “there is a fight between a police officer backed by the president and a defiant chief prosecutor,” criticizing the president for issuing unlawful orders and the police and prosecutors for defying instructions.
He concluded by questioning the credibility of any investigation results to be announced by this administration, suggesting the Lee Jae-myung administration’s judicial reform efforts have turned the judiciary into chaos.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Im Eun-jung, plans to give Baek Hae-ryong final decision-making authority as team leader and to run the ‘Baek Hae-ryong Team’ like a small police station.