If the ‘Special Prosecution Bill on Fabricated Indictments’ is passed… 8 out of 12 cases related to President Lee

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Jae-ha = The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing to remove the right to cancel indictments from the 'Special Prosecution Act on Manipulated Indictments' due to public backlash, but political controversy is expected to continue as eight of the 12 cases subject to investigation are related to President Lee Jae-myung.

The Democratic Party adopted the so-called special prosecution bill on fabricated prosecutions as its party line and decided to pass it at the plenary session of the National Assembly on the 5th at the earliest.

According to the legal community on the 4th, the name of the special prosecutor bill is 'A bill on the appointment of a special prosecutor to uncover the truth about suspicions such as fabricated investigations and fabricated indictments by the Prosecutor's Office of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, the National Intelligence Service, the Board of Audit and Inspection, etc.'

Among the special prosecutor's investigation targets specified in the bill, there are eight cases related to President Lee, including ▲ Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea ▲ Daejang-dong development corruption ▲ Wirye New Town development corruption ▲ Baekhyeon-dong development preferential treatment ▲ Publication of false facts related to Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong development ▲ Seongnam FC illegal sponsorship ▲ Kim Jin-seong's perjury teacher ▲ Gyeonggi Province Governor's corporate card misappropriation.

Ssangbangwool's remittance to North Korea was the biggest issue in the government investigation surrounding suspicions of fabricated indictments, and was a decisive opportunity to push for a special prosecution.

President Lee was indicted on suspicion of conspiring with then-Vice-Governor Pyeonghwa Lee Hwa-young from January 2019, when he was the governor of Gyeonggi Province, to January of the following year to pay $5 million in smart farm project expenses that Gyeonggi Province had to pay to North Korea and $3 million in expenses for the governor's visit to North Korea to Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of Ssangbangwool Group.

In this case, in which former Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young's conviction was confirmed, President Lee was put on trial on charges of third-party bribery, but the first trial, which was in the preparatory stage for trial, was suspended at the Suwon District Court after the presidential election.

Regarding the Ssangbangwool remittance to North Korea case in the original text of the special prosecutor's bill, Democratic Party lawmakers said, "It has been revealed that the investigating prosecutor cajoled and pressured the defense attorney," and "The circumstances of fabricating the case have been revealed, such as the organic involvement of the Yoon Seok-yeol government's Presidential Office and the National Intelligence Service to selectively provide evidence to the prosecution."

Likewise, the charge of corporate card misappropriation, which was suspended in the first trial at the Suwon District Court, states that President Lee used a total of 106.53 million won for personal purposes, including spending on fruit, sandwiches, and food from the Gyeonggi Province budget, including corporate cards, from July 2018 to October 2021.

The Daejang-dong development corruption, Wirye New Town development corruption, and Seongnam FC illegal sponsorship are separate cases, but the prosecution indicted all three cases at once after investigation in March 2023.

Afterwards, in October of the same year, prosecutors additionally indicted President Lee on suspicion of preferential treatment for the development of Baekhyeon-dong.

These four charges are all merged and the first trial is in progress at the Seoul Central District Court, and most of the trials for some have been completed.

The Daejang-dong development corruption is a case that was handed over to trial in March 2023 on charges that President Lee caused damages amounting to 489.5 billion won to Seongdam Urban Development Corporation by approving a Daejang-dong development project structure that was advantageous to private businesses while mayor of Seongnam.

President Lee is accused of receiving 21.1 billion won in unfair profits by providing inside information to private companies through his close associates in the Wirye New Town development project in November 2013.

In addition, as the owner of Seongnam FC, he is suspected of providing convenience such as building permits and land use changes in return for receiving 13.35 billion won in sponsorship money from four companies, including Doosan Engineering & Construction, from October 2014 to September 2016.

The Baekhyeon-dong development preferential treatment is an allegation that President Lee gave preferential treatment to Asia Developer Chairman Chung Paul, a private contractor, during the Baekhyeon-dong development project in Bundang-gu, Seongnam from April 2014 to March 2018, allowing him to monopolize profits of 135.6 billion won and causing at least 20 billion won in damage to Seongnam-do Construction, which was excluded from the project.

In addition, the case of President Lee announcing false information in a broadcast interview when he was a presidential candidate that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, the head of the Development Department of the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, who was involved in the Daejang-dong development project (violation of the Public Official Election Act), was halted at the stage of the remand after the Supreme Court's en banc court overturned the case and remanded the case as guilty.

President Lee was found not guilty in the first trial on the charge of demanding false testimony from Kim Jin-seong, the secretary of the late Kim Byeong-ryang, former mayor of Seongnam, during his trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act in 2019. The trial was halted during the appeal trial.

Among the remaining four cases subject to investigation by the special prosecutor, the bribery case involving Kim Yong, former vice president of the Korea Institute for Democracy, is not directly related to President Lee, but can be seen as corruption by his close associates.

The other three cases include the Moon Jae-in administration's manipulation of real estate statistics, the assassination of a public official in the West Sea, and false reports of defamation against former President Yoon Seok-yeol.

Previously, when the Democratic Party proposed the Special Prosecutor Act in May, it included provisions granting the special prosecutor the authority to cancel indictments already filed, which raised criticism that it was infringing on judicial independence.

As public opinion deteriorated with even progressive legal scholars criticizing it, President Lee Jae-myung asked at a press conference on September 18, "Among the powers of the special prosecutor for fabricated indictments, I ask you to delete the provisions on the transfer and disposition of existing indicted cases and focus only on uncovering the truth."

Accordingly, as President Lee said, the Democratic Party is pushing for a special prosecution bill that removes the authority to cancel indictments in existing cases, but controversy is expected to continue as the special prosecutor may play a role in providing legal and logical grounds for canceling indictments through the Public Prosecution Office.