Judge Kim Jae-ho faces summons

Judge Kim Jae-ho faces summons

By Lee Hyo-sik Police will summon a sitting judge and two prosecutors involved in indictment solicitation allegations for questioning. The judge is suspected of having asked a prosecutor to indict a blogger who criticized his wife, the ruling Saenuri Party’s former Seoul mayoral candidate Na Kyung-won. They are also considering questioning the three at the same time to see if their accounts of the incident differ. Officials at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) said Friday that investigators will summon Kim Jae-ho, a senior judge at the Seoul Eastern District Court, Thursday. Kim is suspected of having asked Park Eun-jung, a female prosecutor at Bucheon Prosecutors’ Office, to indict the blogger surnamed Kim in 2005 for posting a series of messages critical of Na in cyberspace. “Regardless of whom we question, we will perform our duties in accordance with the nation’s laws and principles,” a senior SMPA official said. “If the three individuals offer us different accounts of what happened, we will have no choice but to summon all of them. We will also consider questioning them together.” Investigators had initially planned not to summon Park and her successor. Instead, they have sent written questions asking them to provide their accounts of the incident. But police are now leaning toward bringing them in for questioning. The change in stance came after National Police Commissioner General Cho-Hyun-oh called for a “fair and balanced” investigation into the indictment solicitation scandal. During a meeting of senior police officials Thursday, Cho scolded the SMPA chief for the lenient treatment of the two prosecutors. Cho ordered the SMPA to follow standard procedure in its probe into the case. “There is criticism that the police have been too lenient toward the prosecutors by questioning them in writing or via the phone. But from now on, we will treat them just like any other suspects,” another SMPA official said. He said investigators will likely summon the two prosecutors first and then Judge Kim, who will be summoned next week. Earlier this week, Park told police in a written statement that she was indeed pressured by Kim to indict the blogger. According to the written account, Kim told her if she indicted the blogger, the court would then “handle” the case. Na had filed a complaint for defamation citing unfavorable comments written about her on the Internet. The female prosecutor also said she notified her successor that the judge asked her to indict the man. Park referred the case to her successor, prosecutor Choi Young-un, in January 2006 as she had to take maternity leave. The blogger was indicted by Choi in April 2006 and was fined 700 million won by the Supreme Court in December.