Prosecution accuses Lee of making false statement

Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung was indicted without detention on Thursday for making false statements related to ‘the Baekhyeon-dong development project’ during his presidential campaign.

On the day, the Public Investigation Bureau of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office put Lee on trial for the charge of publishing false information under the Public Election Act.

In an interview with SBS’s ‘News Briefing of Joo Young-jin’ on Dec. 22, 2021, when asked if he had any ties to Kim Moon-gi, former chief of the Seongnam Development Corporation’s Project Development Division who was in charge of Daejang-dong development project, Lee lied about not knowing Kim when he was serving as Seongnam mayor. The prosecution determined the falsehood of Lee’s statement based on the grounds that he had Kim as one of his companions in his overseas business trip in January 2015 while serving Seongnam mayor and he awarded a mayoral certificate to him in the same year.

In the Gyeonggi Province inspection of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee in October last year, Lee explained the background of the preferential treatment on the alteration of land use zoning for the Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyeon-dong, Seongnam City. Lee mentioned that he was threatened by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, adding that the ministry told him to and he had no option but to follow. The prosecution recognized his remarks as false as well. It accused Lee at the same time before the Chuseok holiday season, because the statute of limitations for violating the Public Election Act is set to expire at Friday midnight.

“It is an unprecedented political accusation,” DP Floor Leader Park Hong-geun said on Thursday. “The prosecution is covering up the sin of the incumbent authority and making up the sin of the opposition party out of nothing. It is like digging deep into the ground to find out something, when there is actually nothing.”


yea@donga.com