Han Dong-hoon criticizes Lee Jae-myung's apology for Noh Woong-rae's acquittal as a "build-up for indictment cancellation"

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Ryu Mina = On the 22nd, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon criticized President Lee Jae-myung's apology for excluding him from nomination in the 2024 general election to former Democratic Party lawmaker Noh Woong-rae, who was indicted on charges of receiving illegal political funds and found not guilty at the appeals court, saying, "It is an obvious plan to build up the cancellation of the indictment."

One lawmaker said this to President Lee on Facebook on the same day, saying, "You were embarrassed by being a backer of Baek Hae-ryong, and now you are playing the role of a new faction due to former lawmaker Noh's money envelope incident."

The day before, President Lee apologized on social media, referring to former lawmaker Roh's acquittal in the appellate court and ruling out former lawmaker Roh's nomination as the leader of the Democratic Party in the 2024 general election, saying, "For the sake of the general election, I had no choice but to take advantage of the evil behavior of political prosecutors and play a role in the village."

He emphasized, "We will make sure to create a country where innocent citizens will never again be sacrificed due to the misuse of state power."

Meanwhile, in response to Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok's comment about former Rep. Roh's case, "This is a case where the prosecution caught a live person through manipulation and framing. People who have been indicted for manipulation know this. Song Young-gil, Noh Woong-rae...", Rep. Han said, "Is the case in which he received 920 million won in bribes not even what you call a 'manipulation'? Representative Kim is asking because he himself was taken away."

Previously, one lawmaker, who was Minister of Justice under the Yoon Seok-yeol government, explained the need to process the motion for arrest of former lawmaker Roh at a plenary session of the National Assembly in December 2022, and said, "Even the sound of rustling money envelopes has been recorded as is," and in response to this, the ruling party criticized, saying, "The sound of rustling (remarks) is not innocent. Take responsibility and commit a grave crime."

In response to this, a lawmaker refuted the previous day, saying, "Former lawmaker Roh was not acquitted because it was revealed that he did not actually receive the money," adding, "He was acquitted for the formal reason of 'excluding illegally collected evidence (recording files, etc.).'"