'Taxi Driver Assault' Lee Yong-gu's First Trial Today... "Defendant Appears in Court"

Former Deputy Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu. The photo shows him entering the Ministry of Justice Government Gwacheon Building on December 15, 2020, while serving as Deputy Minister, to attend the Prosecutor Disciplinary Committee review for then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The first trial of former Deputy Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu, who was indicted for assaulting a taxi driver while intoxicated, is set to take place.

At 10 a.m. on the 15th, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 32-2 (Presiding Judges Cho Seung-woo, Bang Yoon-seop, Kim Hyun-soon) will hold the first trial of former Deputy Minister Lee, who was charged with assaulting a driver under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. According to the defendant's obligation to appear in formal trials, former Deputy Minister Lee must appear in court in person.

At a previous pre-trial hearing, Lee’s defense attorney stated, "While the facts are acknowledged, the defendant was heavily intoxicated and had diminished capacity to distinguish objects or make decisions," adding, "there was no intent to assault."

Former Deputy Minister Lee was indicted for grabbing and pushing the collar of taxi driver Mr. A, who tried to wake him up while he was intoxicated in front of his apartment in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on November 6, 2020, when he was still practicing as a lawyer. He was also charged with instructing evidence destruction by offering Mr. A a settlement of 10 million won and requesting the deletion of the black box footage.

This case involved assaulting a driver while operating a vehicle, but controversy arose because the police did not apply the charge of assaulting a driver under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. Since Mr. A expressed that he did not want prosecution and the police applied the assault charge under the Criminal Act, which is a crime that cannot be prosecuted without the victim's complaint, the case was closed as an internal investigation.

After his appointment as Deputy Minister at the end of 2020, a reinvestigation began following a complaint filed by civic groups, raising suspicions that the police attempted to cover up the case despite reviewing part of the black box footage at the time. The prosecution, after reviewing the recovered black box footage during the reinvestigation, indicted former Deputy Minister Lee and police officer Mr. B from Seocho Police Station without detention. Mr. B was charged with special dereliction of duty and falsification and use of false official documents.

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