Yang, Probed for Bribery

The Cheongju District Prosecutors Office that is probing into the suspicions on whether Yang Gil-seung, former secretary of President Roh Moo-hyun, had been bribed, summoned Yang on August 22 and investigated whether he had exercised influence over or had received money from Lee Won-ho, the owner of a night-club in Cheongju.

The investigation focused intensively on whether Yang had received money or other valuable goods on April 17 while drinking from Lee who is currently under investigation on charges of tax evasion and violating Prostitution Prevention Law.

The prosecution also explored the reasons for the second meeting of Yang and Lee on June 28, the content of their conversation and whether Yang had received anything from Lee.

Prosecutors are known to have already tracked down Lee`s bank accounts for the investigation.

In addition, the prosecution is planning to summon Lee, his business partner Han, Democratic Party Chung-buk Branch member Mr. Oh and a certain Mr. Kim, and will conduct a face-to-face interrogation, if necessary.

Chu Yoo-yeop, attorney of the Cheongju District Prosecutors Office said that, “the investigation mainly focused on the `hidden camera,` due to the public`s interest until now, but future investigations will focus on whether Lee had actually bribed Yang.”

When appearing at the Prosecutors Office on August 22 at 2PM, Yang answered briefly to the press that he will “sincerely respond to the prosecutors` investigation.”

Meanwhile, the attorneys representing Kim Do-hun, former public attorney of Cheongju District Court who is under arrest for the charge of fabricating the concealed camera, announced that, “there is evidence that an official of the prosecution exerted pressure on Lee, while investigating.”

The attorneys said that, “the evidences are the daily record of the investigation which is in the form of memos and Kim`s confession records,” and that they will “decide whether or not to disclose the evidences after consulting with Kim.”

They also said that, “Kim had reported to the head of the district court beforehand and was prepared to immediately arrest Lee, on June 20, on the charges of robbery and instigation, but the seniors stopped him on the same day afternoon.”

They also claimed that, ”on July 1, a senior attorney called Kim into his room and demanded him to stop investigations on Lee`s alleged murder instigation, accusing Kim of trusting what gangster said and carrying out investigations into a murder case that happened 14 years ago.”

In response, the prosecution answered that, “what Kim`s attorneys are insisting is nothing new, for it has already been verified at the beginning of the inspection by the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, and was found not to be true.”