Gosi Student Group Files Another Complaint Against Candidate Park Beom-gye for Alleged Assault... Charged with Special Assault

Lee Jong-bae, the representative of the examinees' group for the preservation of the bar exam, is holding a press conference on the 26th in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, to accuse Park Beom-gye, the nominee for Minister of Justice, and his aide. Lee stated, "The nominee assaulted a victim who was kneeling and pleading with abusive language," and "The aide tried to take a photo of the examinee's face from the side. This constitutes assault using the power of multiple people." Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A group of bar exam candidates claiming to have been assaulted in the past by Park Beom-gye, the nominee for Minister of Justice, has once again filed a complaint against him with the prosecution.

The group for the preservation of the judicial examination held a press conference in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 26th, announcing that they would file charges against Park and his aide for special assault.

The group stated, "The bar exam candidates have been willing to forgive and not pursue the matter further if Park Beom-gye offered a sincere apology and reflection, both five years ago when the assault occurred and now," adding, "We clearly expressed that we would withdraw the complaint if he apologized and sought forgiveness, but Park did not apologize for the assault on the bar exam candidates during the confirmation hearing on the 25th."

They continued, "We were horrified to see him refuse to acknowledge the very clear facts of the assault and cowardly evade the issue with silence. We have filed the complaint to assert our innocence and hold Park accountable."

The group claims that on November 23, 2016, at his officetel located in Dangsan-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Park grabbed the collar of a bar exam candidate who was requesting the passage of a bill to preserve the judicial examination and verbally abused him.

At the confirmation hearing held at the National Assembly the previous day, Park claimed he was threatened in relation to the assault controversy. He said, "I am not a large person, but six or so young men much bigger than me appeared at 10 p.m. I wondered how they knew my address." He added, "My wife was alone at our home in Daejeon, and she was startled when six or so people advocating for the preservation of the judicial exam rang the doorbell at night," and also said, "They appeared holding picket signs on the way to school for my second child, who is a sophomore in high school."

Meanwhile, on the 14th, the bar exam candidates’ group filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office against Park for abuse of authority, stating, "Park instructed members of the preparation team to convey the false information that ‘there was no assault on the bar exam candidates’ to the press corps and caused the dissemination of false reports, thereby damaging the honor of the bar exam candidates." They had also filed a defamation complaint against Park with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 12th for defamation through publications and other means.

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