'망상인가, 수사인가'… 박정훈 전 수사단장 구속영장 논란, 1심의 결론은 무엇인가 > K-wave Trends

The 24th Criminal Settlement Division of the Seoul Central District Court acquitted military prosecutor Yeom Bo-hyeon and former head of the Ordinary Prosecution Department of the Ministry of National Defense Prosecutors' Office Kim Min-jung, who were indicted on charges of providing false information in the arrest warrant for former investigation team leader Park Jeong-hoon. The special prosecutors have argued that they unfairly detained former investigative director Park by dismissing his allegations of external pressure as "delusions" and distorting concerns about destruction of evidence. However, the court emphasized that even though the investigative agency made its best efforts during the investigation, there may be cases where the facts are inconsistent after the fact. In other words, the court's consistent logic was that even if the content stated in the warrant request was partially different from the objective circumstances, the intent of creating a false official document could not be directly determined based on that alone.

What the court paid most attention to was the nature of the expression ‘delusion’ used in the warrant request. The court interpreted this not as an indication of false facts, but as an expression of the investigative agency's independent opinion or judgment. Just because somewhat extreme or biased expressions were used, we believe that it would be difficult to punish this as 'creating a false official document' in the legal sense. In addition, the fact that the defendants submitted former Director Park's claims and materials to support them to the military court when they requested the warrant served as a basis for refuting the suspicion that they intentionally tried to conceal the facts. Therefore, the court's key conclusion is that there is insufficient evidence to prove that there was an unwritten intention to recognize or tolerate false content.

This ruling also acquitted him of the charge of abuse of power and confinement. This charge is a crime that requires the creation of a false official document, but since the previous charge of creating a false official document was found not guilty, the derived detention charge also cannot be established. The special prosecutor emphasized human rights violations by citing the fact that former Director Park was detained for approximately 7 hours after examining the warrant, but the court viewed this as an extension of legitimate judicial procedures. As a result, a legal judgment has been made as to whether the investigative agency's warrant request was procedurally justified, and this is expected to be an important milestone for the scope of investigators' discretion in the future.

However, Military Prosecutor Yeom Bo-hyeon was found guilty of violating the National Assembly Testimony and Appraisal Act and was sentenced to a fine of 10 million won. Even though Major Yeom was selected as a witness for the government audit, he failed to appear due to medical treatment at the hospital, and the court did not recognize this as a justifiable reason. In particular, it was made clear that hospital treatment was not so urgent that it had to be done on the same day, and that one could not abandon one's obligation to attend the National Assembly just because one was under investigation. While acquitting him of the main charges, he was met with strict legal standards for violating the obligation to attend the National Assembly audit, which is the authority of the National Assembly.