Jang Yun-gi case: uncle also a police officer as dawn emergency meeting raises suspicions of organized cover-up

Questions have been raised about whether an organized attempt to conceal evidence lay behind the police's inadequate response to the Jang Yun-gi case.

Attorney Son Su-ho appeared on CBS Radio's "Park Seong-tae's News Show," broadcast Thursday, and said the possibility of organized interference in the investigation could not be ruled out.

Jang, 23, was indicted and detained on June 2 on charges of murdering a high school girl he had no prior acquaintance with after attempting to sexually assault her in Gwangju. The case drew controversy after a cable tie — a key piece of evidence — was found at the home of Jang's father, a serving police inspector.

Son said it was unusual that the chief of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station had convened an emergency meeting in the early hours of May 5, the day of the incident.

"It is unusual that a meeting chaired by the station chief was held in the early hours," he said. "At the time, the suspect's father was a serving police officer. That makes me think the police may have responded in an organized, coordinated way."

However, Son also acknowledged another possibility. "Because it involved the family of a police officer, the meeting could have been called to encourage thorough, fair and objective handling of the case — essentially a warning not to give anyone grounds for criticism," he said.

And yet, he added, "the possibility cannot be ruled out that someone directly told investigators to quietly make it go away, or to give some help since it was a police family's case and keep the fallout from getting too big — or at least hinted at something along those lines."

According to Son, one of the investigators on the case reportedly told Jang's father that "there were orders from above to keep it from being known that he was a police officer."

Son said it seemed unlikely that such an order had come from the station chief's meeting, but added that "at whatever level, the possibility cannot be ruled out that such an instruction, order or request came down from above the investigator in charge."

Channel A also reported that Jang's paternal uncle is a serving mid-ranking police officer in another region.

Son said that having multiple police officers in the family did not necessarily mean undue pressure had been applied, but added that "the possibility cannot be ruled out that past working ties or personal connections with the investigation team — or connections reaching even higher — were used to exert pressure."

"If that chain of command in fact existed, and if improper instructions or pressure came down through it, and if the investigation was manipulated and distorted as a result, this would be a massive scandal capable of shaking the entire police organization — a massive gate," he said.

Meanwhile, police have formed a special investigation team to look into the various allegations surrounding the Jang Yun-gi case and determine what happened.