Justice Minister Seeks Disciplinary Action Against Prosecutors for Courtroom Walkout
2 sources · South Korea · 1 of them is linked to a state
Who reported this
- Yonhap
- The Korea Herald
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
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Every source for this story reports from South Korea.
Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho has requested disciplinary action against two prosecutors who left a high profile perjury trial last year in protest of proceedings they alleged were unfair. The request follows an internal inspection into four prosecutors from the Suwon District Prosecutors Office who abruptly exited a pretrial hearing in November 2025 after the court rejected their request to call witnesses. Before leaving, the team filed a motion to disqualify the bench.
Two of the prosecutors involved have since resigned and received ministerial warnings. Disciplinary proceedings will continue for the remaining two. The final sanctions will be decided by a disciplinary committee chaired by Jung.
The incident took place during the trial of Lee Hwa young, a former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province. Lee was sentenced to four months in prison for giving false testimony to parliament in 2024. In that testimony, Lee claimed that prosecutors provided him and a businessman with food and alcohol during interrogations to coerce false statements against current President Lee Jae Myung. President Lee had previously ordered a strict investigation into the prosecutors following the walkout.
Although an inspection committee of the Supreme Prosecutors Office concluded in April that disciplinary action would be difficult, the justice ministry proceeded with the request based on its own internal findings.
How each side framed it
- Centre
- The report presented the events as a factual sequence of legal and administrative actions.
- Centre-right
- The report mirrored the factual account provided by the center source without adding distinct framing.
Sources
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