Yoon Jae-soon and Lim Jong-deuk indictment dismissed... court says “not subject to the insurrection special counsel’s investigation”

Yoon Jaesoon, former senior secretary for general affairs at the presidential office, and People Power Party lawmaker Im Jongdeuk were indicted on charges of improperly intervening in personnel appointments at the National Security Office, but the trial court on the 21st dismissed the indictment. The court determined that the special counsel for insurrection had brought the case to trial beyond the scope of investigation and prosecution prescribed by law. The 23rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in the case involving charges of abuse of authority and violation of the State Public Officials Act against the two men that there was no reasonable connection between the drone incident and the allegations of personnel intervention. The bench explained that the allegations of personnel intervention took place more than a year before the drone incident, and that the parties involved, location, purpose, and means were also different. The bench also stated that regarding the special counsel's scope of investigation, it cannot handle every case learned of during the investigation, but only those recognized within a reasonably related scope. It concluded that the special counsel's indictment of the two men was invalid, but added that after a lawful investigative agency investigates again, a legally authorized prosecutor may reindict them. This ruling marks yet another case among those indicted by the special counsel for insurrection in which the indictment was dismissed on the grounds that it was not within the scope of the investigation.