Lee Jae-myung Appears for 2nd Investigation on Wirye and Daejang-dong Allegations: "Era of Guilty Without Evidence and Innocent Without Investigation"

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is under suspicion of breach of trust related to preferential treatment allegations in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development projects, is appearing at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 10th as a suspect. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office for a second investigation related to the Wirye New Town and Daejang-dong development corruption case.

Lee arrived at the east gate of the prosecution building at around 11:22 a.m. on the 10th. He waved to supporters from inside the moving vehicle. He was about 1 hour and 50 minutes late compared to the originally requested time of 9:30 a.m. by the prosecution, and also late compared to the 11 a.m. time his side had announced due to traffic congestion.

Before entering the building, Lee stood at the photo line and said, "It is an era of 'No prosecution, no guilt; prosecution, no innocence,'" adding, "Even after the summons, which was delayed and caused controversy over additional investigations, no plausible evidence of Daejang-dong breach of trust has emerged except for changed testimonies by desperate people manipulated by the prosecution." He also stated, "I will firmly stand against the prosecutor dictatorship regime," and "I firmly believe that truth alone is the shield, not avoiding the arrows of lies."

Lee is accused of violating the Anti-Corruption Act by leaking internal secrets of Seongnam City or Seongnam Urban Development Corporation to private developers through close aides such as Jeong Jin-sang, former policy secretary to the Seongnam mayor, during the Wirye and Daejang-dong development projects from 2010 to 2018 when he served as Seongnam mayor. He is also charged with breach of duty for causing significant damage to Seongnam City by finalizing the decision to remove the clause for recovering excess profits, resulting in no additional profits beyond the confirmed 182.2 billion won.

The prosecution believes that private developers gained unfair profits of 788.6 billion won from the Daejang-dong project and 21.1 billion won from the Wirye New Town project. It is said that Seongnam City bore huge losses equivalent to the profits gained by the private companies in the Daejang-dong project.

The prosecution is investigating that Lee, as Seongnam mayor, approved or tacitly allowed the leakage of confidential information by close aides and, in return, received various election support or funds from private developers through former secretary Jeong and others.

Lee appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 28th of last month and appeared for the second time on this day, 13 days later. Including the investigation on the 10th of last month at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam branch regarding the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship fund suspicion,' this is his third appearance before the prosecution.

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