Prosecutors launched 'Jang Yun-gi case' probe before police, already booked multiple officers

Prosecutors launched their investigation into allegations of evidence tampering and leaking of confidential information during the police probe of the so-called "Jang Yun-gi case" before police did, it has emerged.

According to the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office, prosecutors conducted a search and seizure Tuesday at Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station — which handled the Jang Yun-gi case from his arrest through his transfer to prosecutors — having already booked multiple officers as suspects on Friday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

After Jang was transferred, prosecutors conducting a supplementary investigation grew suspicious of signs of collusion between Jang's father, an active-duty police officer, and the investigating team. They launched a formal investigation last week following a preliminary internal inquiry.

The day multiple officers were booked coincided with the point at which a forensic report on a "real doll" — a key piece of evidence in the case — was forwarded to prosecutors following media coverage, roughly six weeks after the results had been delivered to police.

The Korean National Police Agency also launched an investigative audit into the overall handling of the Jang Yun-gi case around that same time.

The police audit was converted into a formal investigation on Monday — three days after prosecutors had begun theirs.

The move came after the audit revealed evidence-tampering allegations against Officer A, an inspector in the criminal investigations division at Gwangsan Police Station who had led the Jang Yun-gi investigation team.

Police are currently investigating only the evidence-tampering charges against Officer A, but prosecutors plan to conduct a comprehensive investigation covering a range of allegations that emerged across the entire police probe — including the sharing of confidential information between the investigating team and Jang's father.

Police arrested Officer A on an emergency basis on Monday and applied for an arrest warrant Tuesday. In securing custody, police moved faster than prosecutors.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the Jang Yun-gi case continues to grow, with allegations of collusion between his father and the investigating team drawing widening scrutiny.

Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho weighed in on the matter, writing on his Facebook page that Jang's father, while serving as an active-duty police officer, had destroyed key evidence in the case.

Jeong said prosecutors, during their supplementary investigation, identified evidence that police had not seized and used it to establish Jang's intent to commit a sex crime — allowing them to indict him not on the simple murder charge police had forwarded, but on "murder with intent to rape," a far more serious offense. "Simple murder carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison, whereas murder with intent to rape can only be punished by death or life imprisonment — the difference in sentencing is enormous," he said.

Jeong added that it remains difficult to immediately sanction the father despite his destruction of evidence, because current law exempts close relatives from punishment for evidence tampering under a "family exception" provision. "The law takes into account the natural human instinct to protect one's own family, viewed from a judicial perspective," he said.

However, Jeong noted that a similar family exception covering theft, fraud and other property crimes between relatives was abolished in December last year in line with changing social norms, and said it was worth examining whether the evidence-tampering exemption should also be revised.