Director Jeong Jin-sang Files Detention Review Petition with Court... Hearing Scheduled for Afternoon of 23rd

Jin Sang Jeong, Chief of Political Coordination, Office of the Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] On the 21st, just two days after Jeong Jin-sang, the Chief Political Coordination Officer of the Party Representative Office and a close aide to Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was detained, he filed a request for a detention review with the court.

On the same day, Jeong filed the detention review request at the Seoul Central District Court. Jeong's attorney had previously expressed an intention to consider filing the detention review request.

A detention review is a procedure in which a detained or arrested suspect, their attorney, legal representative, or family requests the competent court to review whether the arrest or detention is justified.

The court receiving the detention review request must interrogate the detained or arrested suspect and examine investigation-related documents and evidence within 48 hours from the time the request is received. If the court finds the request unfounded, it dismisses it by decision; if it finds the request justified, it orders the release of the detained or arrested suspect by decision.

The interrogation of Jeong will be conducted on the 23rd at 2:10 p.m. by the Criminal Appeals Division 4-1 (Presiding Judge Yang Ji-jeong, Judges Jeon Yeon-suk and Cha Eun-gyeong).

Jeong is accused of receiving bribes totaling 140 million KRW in six installments from the Daejang-dong group between February 2013 and October 2020 (bribery under the Special Act on the Punishment of Specific Crimes), and promising to share approximately 42.8 billion KRW in development profits from the Daejang-dong project with Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, and others, including Kim Bu-won and Yoo Dong-gyu, former Planning Directors of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, in exchange for the selection of the Daejang-dong developer (bribery after wrongful act).

Additionally, between July 2013 and March 2017, he is charged with leaking internal secrets of Seongnam City and Seongnam Urban Development Corporation to private businessmen such as lawyer Nam Wook, enabling them to be selected as developers for the Wirye New Town project, allowing Hoban Construction to implement and construct the project, thereby obtaining development profits worth approximately 21 billion KRW (violation of the Anti-Corruption Act). He is also accused of instructing former Director Yoo to throw his mobile phone out the window to destroy evidence (obstruction of justice) when a prosecution raid was imminent on September 29 of last year.

Earlier, on the 19th, the court issued an arrest warrant for Jeong, citing concerns over evidence destruction and flight risk.

Following the detention and indictment of Kim Yong, Deputy Director of the Democratic Research Institute and another close aide to Lee, even with Jeong, known as Lee's "right-hand man," detained, Lee and the Democratic Party continue to claim the investigation is a "prosecutorial fabrication."

On the holiday of the 20th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) summoned Jeong, who is detained at Seoul Detention Center, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office building and conducted his first interrogation since detention.

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