Prosecutors` Smoke Screen to Contain Further Investigation?

Charging Ahn Hee-jung, a close aide to President Roh Moo-hyun for violating political fund laws has provoked suspicion of a smoke screen set up to prevent any scandal from snowballing.

The question is legitimate. Prosecutors accused another aide, Yeom Dong-youn, of illegal lobbying, purportedly taking bribes before joining President Roh’s camp. Ahn, hardly a maverick then, however, did face charges for violating political fund laws.

Who knows better than the prosecutors the fact that violating political fund laws is less punishable than illegal lobbying and finally more likely to avoid an arrest warrant?

Prosecutors accepted Ahn’s inconsistent testimony as true. He claimed that he never accepted dirty money nor knew of any suspected bribe-giver, but recently acknowledged that he had ‘‘received 200 million won and that it was an investment in a bottled water company.’‘

Considering the fact that he invested 200 million won in a company with a stockholders‘ equity of 50 million won, but did not seek control of the stocks or management, an investigation should have been conducted further to find out how the "investment" was made.

Questions abound about the prosecutors’ possible cover-up. Then assemblyman, President Roh resigned as director of an autonomous research institute where the money was delivered in 1999, the prosecution explained. They also said that the President could not be implicated.

In any case, Ahn should be treated as a go-between, rather than owner of the institute. Kim Hyo-geun, brother of former chairman of Bosung Group Kin Ho-jun Group, testified that he knew "Ahn was an aide to the President and presidential aides were associated with the institute." The prosecution, however, made sure that there would be no investigation regarding the President, repeating to emphasize that the President was not involved.

President Roh should break the silence even if the money was just a clean political fund, chipped in with pure intent. The constitution exempts an incumbent president of criminal charges except for rebellion or foreign aggression. Still, a president entrusted by the people should own up to abounding suspicions. People are keeping a close eye on the prosecution’s next steps.