Warrant Rejection, Incorrect Legal Citations During Investigation into Jang Yoon-ki Case

The investigation team at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station made a series of administrative blunders during the investigation into the Jang Yoon-ki case, including incorrectly stating the content of arrest warrant applications and citing the wrong legal clauses in transfer reports submitted to prosecutors. In May, the team applied for warrants six times to secure the suspect's whereabouts and evidence. Of these, two applications—including those to verify card usage history—were rejected by the prosecution due to clerical errors by the police.

In data submitted to the office of People Power Party Rep. Park Su-min, the Gwangju Police Agency initially cited the suspect's misspelled name as the reason for the warrant rejection. However, as this was found to be false, the police re-submitted corrected data to the lawmaker's office stating the actual reason for the rejection.

Furthermore, on May 14, the investigation team incorrectly cited Article 205(1) of the Criminal Law—regarding the possession of opium—as the applicable charge in the transfer report filed when referring Jang Yoon-ki to prosecutors. Jang's alleged offense corresponds to Article 250(1) of the Criminal Law, which covers general murder. Both the search warrants and the transfer report underwent internal verification and approval processes, but the errors were not detected.

A police official explained that the mistakes were clear clerical errors caused by being pressed by workload and that there was no intent.