President Park Geun-hye’s former aide Woo Byung-woo has avoided being arrested, but that does not mean his legal struggles are over.

Special counsel Park Young-soo looks likely to indict the former elite prosecutor in the coming days on charges of abuse of power, neglect of duty and perjury, despite the court’s refusal late Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for him.

“Before the deadline, we will continue looking into Woo’s allegations and if the deadline is extended, we plan to request the writ again,” the counsel’s spokesperson Lee Kyu-chul said at a press briefing.


If the team’s mandate finishes on Feb. 28 as scheduled, they will “either indict him without arrest or hand over the case to state prosecutors,” Lee added.

In a late night decision, the Seoul Central District Court denied the proposed arrest of Woo on grounds of insufficient evidence.

“It is hard to acknowledge the reasons and necessity of the arrest based on the current investigation of (Woo’s) criminal offenses,” Judge Oh Min-seok said.

Woo, 51, has been under suspicion of having abetted, or at least condoned, a wide range of corruption allegedly committed by President Park’s shadowy confidante Choi Soon-sil.

As the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs from 2015 until last October, he was supposed to monitor and inspect, if needed, irregularities in civil service, including the presidential office.

President Park was impeached in December last year over accusations she let Choi interfere in a host of government affairs, colluded with Choi to extort money and favors from local businesses and leaked confidential data to Choi. Choi is being tried criminally.

Woo has repeatedly said he had never met Choi and didn’t even know who she was before the scandal broke.

Investigators, however, suspect Woo may have been Choi’s personal choice for the Blue House job. Multiple media reports have shed light on a connection between Choi and Woo’s mother-in-law, who were golf buddies and shared swimming lessons at a hotel, the reports claimed.

Woo is also suspected of having wielded influence to hinder a special inquiry into the deadly sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 out of fear it might invoke negative public views of Park’s administration.

However, it is unlikely the special investigation team will find fresh momentum to delve deeper into Woo’s alleged misdeeds, as it nears Tuesday’s deadline for its investigation.

The counsel earlier asked acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn to allow a one-month extension of its 70-day mandate, but Hwang has been seen as reluctant to approve the measure.

Once the team is dissolved, the remaining cases will be handed over to state prosecutors, who originally initiated the investigation into the scandal and led it until the independent counsel was appointed.

So far, the counsel has arrested 20 suspects in connection to the scandal, including Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong, Park’s former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and two former culture ministers, Cho Yun-seon and Kim Jong-deok.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)