Accuse those who lied about Choi Soon-sil’s table PC during the hearings

It was alleged that the ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Man-hee colluded with Park Heon-young, a former official of the K-Sport Foundation, on Q&As about the tablet PC, a key evidence of Choi Soon-sil’s manipulation of the state affairs, prior to attending a hearing for the National Assembly’s special investigation of the scandal on Dec. 15. The allegation started from an interview of Ko Young-tae, a former official of the Blue K, with the Monthly JoongAng magazine on Dec. 13. He told the magazine that Mr. Park would make false statements at the fourth hearing after planning things out with a Saenuri lawmaker and the hearing went out just as Ko said.

“When the Saenuri lawmaker asks Park if he saw the tablet PC while he was working with Choi, he would answer that he saw me carrying it around (and not Choi),” Ko told reporters during the interview. At the hearing, when Rep. Lee asked the same question and Park answered, “Ko carried the tablet PC and he told me to buy a charge, but I could not find one to match the right plug pins as his tablet was an old one. I clearly remember that the table was his as he blamed me on that.” However, Park answered Minjoo Party lawmaker Park Young-sun that the tablet belonged to Choi. Rep. Lee strongly denied the allegation by saying that the alleged subornation of perjury was absolutely a false accusation. Ko needs to answer how he find out the detailed Q&As between Rep. Lee and Park in advance.

In the voice recordings of Choi, that held the conversation made between Choi and an acquaintance during her stay in Germany at the end of October and was closed by Rep. Park, Choi ordered to give a false testimony on the tablet PC. Choi was recorded as saying, “Ko needs to stay alert and to make up a story that they (JTBC) completely fabricated this (the story) and they stole this (tablet computer).” The tablet PC contains documents of editing the president speeches and other data that support Choi’s meddling of the state affairs and it seems that Choi intends to make the tablet computer not to be accepted as an evidence. Choi argued that the tablet was not hers and she did not know how to use the one. However, the prosecution concluded that the tablet computer was hers based on the communication log.

Former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon first pretended not to know Choi but later changed his testimony during the hearing by saying, “I cannot say that I have never heard of her name.” Also, a controversy over perjury by professors and faculties of Ewha Womans University about giving preferential treatment to Chung Yoo-ra, Choi Soon-sil’s daughter, has continued. The Act on Testimony, Appraisal, Etc. Before the National Assembly stipulates that if a witness makes a false statement, he/she shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year but not more than ten years. To increase an effectiveness of the hearing, the National Assembly must punish a person who did not attend or made a false statement during a hearing.

eligius@donga.com