A police team leader accused of destroying a cable tie that could have been used as a restraint device during the investigation into the case of Jang Yun-gi, 23, the "Gwangju high school girl murderer," appeared for a pre-detention suspect interrogation (warrant review) on Monday.
Superintendent A of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, who was arrested by police under an emergency detention on charges of destroying evidence, appeared at the warrant review held at the Gwangju District Court in Dong-gu, Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City, on Monday morning.
Getting out of the police escort vehicle, Superintendent A gave no answers to reporters' questions on the way to the courtroom, including "Do you admit to the evidence destruction charges?", "Do you have anything to say?", and "Do you have anything to say to the victim?"
His face covered with a white mask and a hat, Superintendent A pushed past the crowding reporters immediately after getting out of the escort vehicle and quickly went inside.
After finishing the warrant review, he gave no answers to questions such as "Aren't you being treated unfairly?" and "Do you have nothing to say?" before boarding the escort vehicle.
Superintendent A is accused of destroying a cable tie during the search and seizure of the sport utility vehicle (SUV) that Jang Yun-gi used before and after the crime on May 5, when Jang's murder took place.
Video footage recording the situation at the time captured circumstances in which Superintendent A, while exchanging conversations with several investigation team members, discovered a bundle of cable ties in the passenger-seat storage compartment of the SUV but left them unsecured without taking the item into custody.
The missing cable tie was found by prosecutors who searched the residence of Jang Yun-gi's father, an active-duty police officer, and it was determined that the father had taken it from the vehicle.
The family of the late Lee Chae-won, the victim of Jang Yun-gi's murder, and civic groups held a press conference in front of the Gwangju Police Agency, timed to the warrant review, denouncing the police's negligent and cover-up investigation.
"The police were not investigators who sternly punish crime, but accomplices who became one body with the perpetrator, handled the case negligently, and covered it up in an organized manner," they said. "We denounce the police authorities who tried to hide the substantive truth, and legal responsibility must be imposed on the police who shielded the murderer Jang Yun-gi."
The police, who had been conducting an internal inspection into various suspicions surrounding the case, switched to an investigation after discovering clues to prove the charges. The previous day, they placed six people on standby, including the Gwangsan Police Station chief who directed the case investigation, the criminal affairs division chief at the time, and four members of the investigation team leader's unit.
Superintendent A, for whom an arrest warrant was requested, was relieved of duty.
