Lee Jun-seok's Side Kim Cheol-geun: "Dismissal of Retrial? Innocent if Evidence Exists, Guilty if Not"

Criticism of the ruling by the party ethics committee as "a matter that even cows would laugh at"
Former emergency committee member Kim Jaeseop: "Isn't this condemning Lee Junseok and Kim Cheolgeun for blasphemy?"

People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok, who appeared before the Central Ethics Committee to explain allegations of 'instruction to destroy evidence of sexual bribery,' is expressing his position as he leaves the National Assembly. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] Kim Cheol-geun, former chief of staff to the People Power Party leader, criticized the party's Central Ethics Committee for dismissing his disciplinary rehearing request as "something a cow would laugh at."

On the 27th, Kim posted on his Facebook, "It is unrelated to the police investigation result of 'no charges'... Is it 'innocent if you have connections, guilty if you don't'?" The term 'Yoon' is interpreted as referring to President Yoon Seok-yeol.

Kim, classified as a close aide to former party leader Lee Jun-seok, was disciplined with a "2-year suspension of party membership" due to allegations of destroying evidence related to sexual bribery. However, the police decided "no charges" regarding Lee's alleged instruction to destroy evidence of sexual bribery, and Kim filed a rehearing request with the party's Ethics Committee, which was not accepted.

Lee Yang-hee, chairperson of the party's Ethics Committee, explained, "Since the police's decision of no charges is unrelated to the disciplinary reasons of the People Power Party Central Ethics Committee, simply receiving the police's no-charge decision does not meet the criteria of 'when new evidence is discovered regarding a resolved case' as stipulated in Article 26, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 4 of the Ethics Committee regulations, so it is dismissed pursuant to Article 27, Paragraph 1."

Regarding this, former Emergency Response Committee member Kim Jae-seop appeared on MBC Radio's 'Politician Insider' the previous day and said, "In fact, the original disciplinary action against former chief Kim was because he allegedly tried to destroy evidence. But that was also cleared with no charges," adding, "Then the first disciplinary action was wrong."

Former committee member Kim continued, "The Ethics Committee should express its position on this, but instead of dismissing the disciplinary action, they dismissed the rehearing request," and criticized, "Putting all this together, it can only be understood as punishing Lee Jun-seok and Kim Cheol-geun for disrespect because they made the Ethics Committee's review uncomfortable."

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