Indictment of Lee Dong-jae on 'Suspicion of Collusion Between Media and Prosecution'... Investigation into 'Han Dong-hoon Conspiracy' Continues (Comprehensive)

The prosecution investigating the alleged 'geom-eon-yuchak' case has postponed its judgment without including the collusion relationship with Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon (photo) in the indictment.

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The prosecution investigating the 'alleged collusion between prosecutors and media' case has indicted former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae (35) on the 5th. The suspected conspiracy with Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, which had drawn significant attention, was ultimately not included in the indictment, leaving the judgment pending.

On this day, the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Jeong Jin-ung) indicted former reporter Lee on charges of attempted coercion under the Criminal Act, detaining him, and indicted his junior reporter Baek on the same charges without detention.

Former reporter Lee is accused of sending five letters to Lee Cheol-jeon, the representative of Value Investment Korea (VIK) and major shareholder of SillaJen, threatening him by mentioning the possibility of an investigation into his family and demanding that he report corruption allegations against Yoo Si-min, chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation.

The investigation team did not include Prosecutor Han's involvement in the conspiracy in the indictment. A prosecution official stated, "Although a court-issued search warrant was obtained for Han Dong-hoon's mobile phone, forensic analysis has not commenced due to his non-cooperation, including refusal to disclose the password, resulting in prolonged investigation. The first suspect interrogation has not been completed, and further investigation will be conducted to clearly determine whether Prosecutor Han was involved in the crime before proceeding with the case."

Some speculated that, given Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae's deep involvement through exercising investigative control and Seoul Central District Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon's push for explicitly stating the conspiracy, there was a possibility that Prosecutor Han's collusion would be included.

However, the investigation team's lack of evidence hindered this. On the 29th of last month, during the seizure and search of Prosecutor Han's mobile phone SIM card, a physical altercation occurred between Prosecutor Han and Chief Prosecutor Jeong, but no evidence was secured. Subsequently, a series of incidents including the initiation of an internal investigation into assault allegations against the investigation team and Prosecutor Han's demand for clarification regarding the KBS 'false transcript report controversy' also became variables.

Nonetheless, the investigation team decided not to accept the recommendation from the Prosecution Investigation Deliberation Committee to 'suspend the investigation' against Prosecutor Han. Additionally, they plan to continue investigating Ji Mo, who reported the alleged coercive reporting to MBC. Ji is suspected of the so-called 'collusion between power and media' allegation, accused of setting a trap against former reporter Lee with pro-government figures to fabricate the 'prosecutor-media collusion' frame.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.