Chang Ho-joong, who served as chief of the Busan District Prosecutors' Office, will be questioned as a suspect over allegations that a task force team of the National Intelligence Service, to which he and two other prosecutors belonged at the time, obstructed the prosecution's investigation into the election meddling scandal, officials said.
The team allegedly made up a fake office of the NIS' psychological warfare squad to avoid a prosecution raid of the squad's real office, and had members of the squad lie about their activities of writing Internet comments to sway public opinion during the 2012 presidential election.
On Friday, the Justice Ministry said it transferred Chang to the Legal Research and Training Institute, a move aimed at removing him from a post leading investigations at a time when he was subject to an investigation.
Another prosecutor, who worked with Chang at the NIS task force team, was called in on Friday for questioning. The senior prosecutor, Lee Je-young, told reporters ahead of the questioning that no prosecutors dispatched to the NIS at the time engaged in any illegal acts.
Earlier Friday, prosecution investigators raided the offices and homes of Chang and six others suspected of involvement in the obstruction of the investigation and seized computer hard disks, documents, mobile phones and other evidence. BY YONHAP.
