Lee Kyu-won, a former deputy chief prosecutor at the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office, had his constitutional appeal dismissed by the Constitutional Court after he sought to overturn a Supreme Court ruling related to his conviction for creating a false interview report in the investigation of former Justice Ministry official Kim Hak-eui's alleged involvement in a sex bribery scandal.
According to legal sources on July 30, the Constitutional Court dismissed Lee's appeal on July 28, stating that he failed to meet the legal requirements for such a claim regarding the conviction for forgery of public documents.
A dismissal means that the Constitutional Court concludes the appeal does not meet the necessary criteria without assessing whether there was a violation of fundamental rights.
The court determined that Lee did not fulfill the requirement of exhausting all legal remedies available under other laws. It also noted that his appeal primarily contested the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling rather than addressing specific violations of constitutional rights.
Lee was prosecuted for allegedly falsifying interview reports during the investigation of Kim's villa sex bribery allegations while working with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team from 2018 to 2019. He was also accused of leaking interview details to specific media outlets for reporting purposes.
Prosecutors found that Lee included statements in his report that were not made by the interviewee, Yoon Jung-cheon, who did not claim that former President Yoon Suk-yeol had visited the villa.
In March of last year, the first trial found Lee guilty of some charges, imposing a suspended fine of 500,000 won. A suspended sentence allows a guilty verdict while deferring the punishment for two years, after which it can be dismissed if no further issues arise.
The second trial added convictions for violations of the Personal Information Protection Act and the Electronic Criminal Procedure Act, resulting in a suspended fine of 2 million won.
The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling on June 11, rejecting Lee's appeal.
Following the Supreme Court's decision, Lee argued that the legal nature of the interview report and the implications of the Personal Information Protection Act raised significant constitutional issues. He filed a constitutional appeal with the Constitutional Court on July 7, asserting the need for constitutional review. However, the court ruled that he did not meet the necessary criteria for the appeal, thus not addressing the fundamental rights violation claims.
In 2024, while still a prosecutor, Lee ran as a proportional representative candidate for the Justice Reform Party in the 22nd National Assembly elections but was unsuccessful. The Ministry of Justice dismissed him in November of the same year for violating regulations against political activity.
Lee has since filed an administrative lawsuit against his dismissal but recently lost in the first trial and is currently awaiting the outcome of his appeal.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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