Will Lee Jae-myung's Name Also Appear in Lee Hwa-young's Indictment... Prosecution's Indictment 'Psychological Warfare'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Prosecutors are increasingly expected to indict former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young, who was arrested on charges of receiving bribes from Ssangbangwool Group, as early as this week.

According to the legal community on the 12th, Lee’s detention period expires on the 16th. Among this, Hong Seung-wook, head of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, which is leading the case, met with Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok the day before and gave a face-to-face report regarding Lee. This is seen as a preliminary procedure before bringing Lee to trial.

The legal community is also paying attention to whether Lee’s indictment will mention Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. So far, prosecutors have named Lee Jae-myung multiple times in indictments related to major cases in which he was directly or indirectly involved. For this reason, it is highly likely that his name will appear in Lee Hwa-young’s indictment as well.

Earlier, on the 30th of last month, the Criminal Division 3 of the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Yoo Min-jong) indicted the former head of Seongnam City’s Strategic Promotion Team and the former CEO of Doosan Construction regarding the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship fund suspicion,' stating in the indictment that "Lee Jae-myung and Jeong Jin-sang, then Seongnam City Policy Secretary, conspired." Lee’s name appeared 35 times in this indictment. The Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun), which indicted former Seongnam Urban Development Corporation Planning Director Yoo Dong-gyu for 'Wirye New Town development project corruption,' mentioned Lee’s name 18 times in the indictment. Although the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office dismissed the public official election law violation case related to the suspicion of Lee’s lawyer fee payment last month, the non-prosecution decision document left room by stating, "It is difficult to exclude the possibility that the lawyer fees were paid on behalf."

Lee was arrested on the 28th of last month on charges of receiving bribes worth about 250 million won, including three vehicles (a corporate card and foreign cars) from Ssangbangwool in exchange for helping Ssangbangwool reach an agreement on inter-Korean economic cooperation projects with North Korea in 2019. He is also charged with receiving money by falsely registering his associates as Ssangbangwool employees to receive wages of about 90 million won.

Prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether Lee Jae-myung was involved in the inter-Korean projects that formed the background of the transactions between Lee Hwa-young and Ssangbangwool. They are focusing on the fact that Lee Jae-myung, during his tenure as Gyeonggi Province Governor, showed great interest in inter-Korean policies such as cultural exchanges and the establishment of economic special zones. Ssangbangwool is also entangled in the 'lawyer fee payment suspicion,' where it paid about 2 billion won in legal fees on behalf of lawyers involved in Lee Jae-myung’s public official election law violation case in 2018. If Lee Jae-myung’s name appears in the indictment, it is likely to be based on this matter.

Regarding the naming in the indictment, a legal community official said it should be seen as a "prosecutorial strategy." It is intended to psychologically pressure the investigation target and steer the investigation direction favorably. This is so-called 'psychological warfare.' On the other hand, some criticize that naming Lee Jae-myung in the indictment without ever summoning him for questioning and without clearly stating specific charges amounts to a 'political operation' that only threatens without clear evidence.

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