Special Counsel Min Joong-ki — a “State-Sanctioned Killer” ?

[Choice Times=Jinan Kim, Former Executive Director, Samsung Electronics Middle East]

A civil servant who was under investigation by Min Joong-ki’s special counsel team took his own life after being unable to endure what he described as coercive questioning.

The contents of his note reveal exactly why some argue that prosecutorial powers should be curtailed: coercion, intimidation, pressure, manipulation — and the humiliation and disgrace experienced by the powerless. The prosecutorial power dynamics of the past remain unchanged.

What’s even more outrageous is the special counsel’s shameless response. Rather than bowing their heads before the bereaved family, the team claimed,“The interrogation wasn’t coercive and there was no need for pressure.”According to their own statement, they began questioning at 10 a.m. and didn’t let him leave until 12:52 a.m. the next day — nearly 15 hours. Holding a small-town official with no legal experience for that long is coercion and intimidation, regardless of how they try to frame it. It is not the perpetrator who decides whether the conduct was coercive, but the victim.

If the investigation had truly been “comfortable,” why did the civil servant take his own life out of humiliation and shame? This is exactly how such coercive practices have been covered up for years. If his note is genuine, Min Joong-ki is a “killer sanctioned by state power.”

A naive rural bureaucrat who had never faced a police investigation — let alone a prosecutorial one — would have been terrified the moment he received the summons. Facing the overwhelming authority of a special counsel backed by a sitting administration, being interrogated for 15 hours under pressure, and being forced to sign a false statement must have pushed him to the psychological brink.

Even without physical torture, psychological coercion— intimidation, manipulation, forced confessions, pressured signatures — can be just as brutal. One can easily imagine the humiliation and disgrace he must have felt during the interrogation. And yet, rather than offering an honest apology, the special counsel is busy making excuses and denying responsibility.

Min Joong-ki has lost all moral legitimacy. Every case he has pursued now faces the shadow of suspicion — coercion, manipulation, intimidation, and fabrication.One case reveals the pattern.

Power is a double-edged sword, as the saying goes. Those who wield it recklessly must remember: the blade can one day turn back on them.

Why is Min pushing such aggressive investigations, even at the cost of moral authority? A sense of justice? A commitment to truth? It doesn’t seem so. This looks like a desperate bid to produce results that please those in power — a way to secure a future position once his special counsel term ends.

He seems more interested in outcomes that will impress political leaders than in lawful, fair investigations. The manipulated interrogation record in this case is damning evidence. It raises serious doubts about whether any sense of justice remains in a man who once served as the head of the Seoul Central District Court.

If Min Joong-ki continues to chase fleeting glory over principle, he will not be remembered as a hero — only as a disgraced figure in history.

#SpecialCounsel #StatePowerAbuse #HumanRightsViolations