Lee Yong-gu, Deputy Minister of Justice, 'Taxi Driver Assault' Case Assigned to Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office
[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The case of Vice Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu's 'assault on a taxi driver' has been assigned to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.
According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently assigned the case, in which the "Action Alliance for Restoring the Rule of Law (Beopse-ryeon)" and the "Judicial Examination Preparation Group (Sajunmo)" accused Vice Minister Lee of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (Special Act), to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. However, the responsible prosecutor's office has not yet been determined.
Vice Minister Lee, when he was a lawyer, assaulted a taxi driver who tried to wake him up while he was intoxicated in front of his apartment in Seocho-gu on the 6th of last month, but he was not booked. At that time, the police closed the case as an investigation after applying the charge of assault under the Criminal Act, citing that the taxi driver expressed that he did not want prosecution.
However, as this fact became known, there were claims that the police should have applied the Special Act violation charge, which punishes more severely those who assault drivers of vehicles in operation, rather than a simple assault charge against Vice Minister Lee. According to the Special Act, "A person who assaults or threatens a driver of a vehicle in operation shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 5 years or a fine of up to 20 million won," and it was argued that he should have been booked under this law.
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The police explained that the taxi driver was stopped at the time, so it was not considered "in operation," and thus the case was closed. However, there was also criticism that the Special Act, revised in June 2015, includes cases of temporary stops for boarding and alighting in the definition of "in operation," and therefore this provision should have been applied.
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