Lee Jae-myeong, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the first trial in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town case on suspicion of preferential treatment held at the Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 6th. yunhap news
Lee Jae-myeong, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was handed over to trial in connection with suspicions of preferential treatment for the development of Baekhyeon-dong. This is the third indictment since last year’s presidential election. However, investigations related to CEO Lee are not decreasing. The prosecution reorganized the investigation team to look again at whether CEO Lee tolerated his spouse’s personal use of corporate credit cards while serving as governor of Gyeonggi Province. The investigation into the report on the ‘suspicion of tampering with Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol’s investigation’, which took place just before the presidential election, is also directed at those around Representative Lee. According to the Hankyoreh coverage on the 12th, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office has formed a ‘dedicated investigation team’ to investigate Representative Lee under the newly appointed 2nd Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop, following the recent reshuffle of the High Prosecutors’ Office level (Deputy Chief and Deputy Chief). An official from the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office explained, “In order to efficiently proceed with the investigation related to Representative Lee, which was previously led by the 6th Criminal Division, we will reassign the case to each department, and the deputy chief prosecutor will serve as the team leader with overall responsibility.” The dedicated investigation team is largely divided into three parts. Detective Division 6 looks into suspicions related to former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young’s receipt of illegal political funds, while the Defense Business and Industrial Technology Crime Investigation Department is dedicated to investigating suspicions of Ssangbangwool Group’s remittances to North Korea. The Public Investigation Department plans to look into the suspicions that Representative Lee’s spouse, Kim Hye-kyung, condoned the personal use of corporate cards while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province. This is because the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission recently transferred CEO Lee’s related charges to the prosecution, saying ‘there is a need to investigate’. The suspicion was previously investigated by the police once and the case was not forwarded (the charges were terminated). Police Commissioner Yoon Hee-geun was asked a related question at the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee audit held at the National Police Agency on this day and said, “At the time, the (police) investigation team judged (not guilty) by comprehensively not only the statement of the public interest informant but also the results of search and seizure or communication investigation.” The investigation into the report on the ‘suspicion of tampering with Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol’s investigation’, which took place just before the presidential election, is also targeting those around Representative Lee. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office investigation team in charge of the related investigation searched and seized the aide of Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Byeong-wook, a party policy researcher, and a media reporter the day before on charges of defaming President Yoon (violation of the Information and Communications Network Act). Representative Kim was a member of Representative Lee’s closest group. He is a member of the ‘7-member group’. In addition, the prosecution is investigating and booked CEO Lee on charges of breach of trust under the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Economic Crimes in connection with the ‘suspicion of preferential treatment for the development of a hotel in Jeongja-dong’. On this morning, the 3rd Anti-Corruption Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (Director Kim Yong-sik) filed a lawsuit against CEO Lee and Jeong Jin-sang on charges of causing 20 billion won in damage to Seongnam Urban Development Corporation by giving preferential treatment to a specific company during the Baekhyeon-dong development process (breach of trust under the Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Economic Crimes). The former head of the political affairs coordination office of the Democratic Party leader’s office (then policy aide to Seongnam City) was indicted without detention. The prosecution submitted these cases to trial and applied to the court to merge them with the existing Daejangdong and Wirye cases. The Seoul Central District Court plans to assign the cases indicted by the prosecution to the 33rd Criminal Settlement Division (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hyeon), which is in charge of the Daejang-dong and Wirye cases, to determine whether to merge them. The position is that they will continue to investigate Representative Lee’s charges of instigation of perjury in the Public Official Election Act trial and suspicions of Ssangbangwool sending money to North Korea (third-party bribery charges). Reporter Jae-ho Lee ph@hani.co.kr Reporter Hye-min Jeong jhm@hani.co.kr Reporter Na-rae Jang wing@hani.co.kr
2023-10-12 20:01:01
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