Hong Joon-pyo "Defends substantive review of warrant for acquaintance suspected of 'Myung Tae-gyun public opinion poll money'"

“I have never met Myung Tae-gyun… I am taking action personally because the investigation is unreasonable.”

(Daegu = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Hyun-tae = Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo will be in charge of the defense in the interrogation (substantive warrant review) of an acquaintance before the arrest of an acquaintance for whom an arrest warrant was requested due to the 'suspicion of paying Myung Tae-gyun's public opinion poll fee'.

On the 26th, former Mayor Hong posted on his Facebook page, "Five years ago, when I was running against candidate Yoon Seok-yeol, the police belatedly requested an arrest warrant for the accountant and the president of an election service company on charges of falsely reporting election expenses, saying there were problems with the execution of funds for the race. I decided to go to the Daegu court tomorrow as a lawyer to argue for the substantive review of their arrest warrants."

He added, "It seems to me to be an unreasonable investigation, and the statute of limitations for this case expires on November 19, but since this is an investigation targeting even me, who has retired from politics, I have no choice but to step forward in person."

At the same time, he wrote, "I have never personally met Myung Tae-gyun and have never entrusted him with an opinion poll, but it appears to be an incident that occurred in the aftermath of the accusation. They called me in to investigate, punished me if found guilty, and told me not to mess with my employees, but if they even investigated the campaign funds of a candidate who lost in the primary election five years ago, what else would come out?"

Former Mayor Hong concluded his post by saying, "This is truly outrageous. It is truly bitter. Is it really necessary to do this?"

According to investigative authorities, the Daegu Police Agency recently applied to the Public Prosecution Office for an arrest warrant for Mr. Park, a junior of former Mayor Hong's son's friend, Mr. Choi, on charges of violating the Political Fund Act, and the Public Prosecution Office requested a warrant from the court.

The warrant examination for the suspect, Mr. Park, will be held at the Daegu District Court on the morning of the 27th.

In March of last year, Kim Han-me, standing representative of Citizens' Action to Correct Judicial Justice (Sasehaeng), accused three people, including former Mayor Hong, Mr. Choi, and Mr. Choi's junior, Mr. Park, of bribery and other corruption on suspicion of paying 40 million won for an opinion poll related to former Mayor Hong conducted by the Future Korea Research Institute, which was effectively run by Mr. Myeong.

Two people, including Mr. Choi and his junior Mr. Park, deny all of the charges raised, and former Mayor Hong also maintains his position that he has nothing to do with the 'Myeong Tae-gyun suspicion'.