A team led by special prosecutor Ahn Mi-young grilled the head of the Air Force's legal office in a probe on the potential mishandling of a servicewoman's death by suicide after she filed a report that she had suffered from sexual abuse last year.

According to the legal community, Brig. Gen. Jeon Ik-soo, who serves as ROK Air Force judge advocate general, returned home early Thursday morning after being questioned for nearly 13 hours on charges of power abuse and dereliction of duty for insufficiently conducting the initial investigation into the sexual abuse incident last March.

The family of the victim, Master Sergeant Lee Ye-ram, claims that Jeon’s handling of the investigation compounded her secondary trauma and ultimately led to Lee’s decision to end her life.

Despite an order by then-Air Force Chief of Staff Lee Seong-yong to consider arresting the suspected abuser, identified only by his surname Jang, Jeon allegedly disregarded the command.

Denying the allegations, Jeon told Yonhap News Agency that the claims made by the Center for Military Human Rights Korea are completely false.

The special counsel team plans to summon Jeon for additional questioning Saturday afternoon, after which it is expected to decide who will be indicted and on which charges.

In May 2021, Lee died by suicide after accusing Jang, a male officer of the same rank with seniority over Lee, of sexually abusing her two months earlier.

A military court sentenced Jang to nine years in prison in December, but the sentence was reduced to seven years by an appellate court.