"'Lee Jae-myung's Closest Aide' Jeong Jin-sang's First Formal Trial on the 29th... 54 Witnesses"

The trial of Jeong Jin-sang, former Political Coordination Officer in the office of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, regarding the Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption case will officially begin on the 29th.

Jung Jin-sang, former Chief of Political Coordination Office at the Democratic Party of Korea Representative Office [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 23 (Chief Judge Jo Byung-gu) completed the preparatory procedures for the trial of Jeong, who was detained and indicted on charges including bribery after fraudulent acts and bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, and set the first trial date for the 29th.

The court plans to hold trials at least once a week to conduct focused hearings. The court stated, "While we will guarantee opportunities for the exercise of defense rights and necessary evidence presentation, we do not intend to proceed with the trial slowly."

The prosecution has applied for about 30 witnesses so far, and including those to be applied for in the future, the total is said to reach 54. The prosecution argued, "The examination of witness Yoo Dong-gyu (former Planning Director of Seongnam Urban Development Corporation) is the most urgent."

Jeong’s defense attorney requested, "The recorded statements submitted to the prosecution by accountant Jeong Young-hak are the starting point not only for this case but also for the main Daejang-dong case and other related cases. We believe it is important to examine the credibility of the parties involved, so we would like to proceed with listening to the recordings first."

The court responded, "We will review your opinion if you provide it," but added, "It would be preferable to focus only on the trial of the core issues charged."

Jeong was indicted on charges of providing preferential treatment to private developers in the Daejang-dong development project and promising to share 24.5% of the common stock equity (after deducting common expenses, amounting to 42.8 billion KRW) with the private developers in return. He is also accused of separately receiving bribes from Mr. Yoo, ordering evidence destruction, and leaking confidential internal documents related to the Wirye New Town development project to private developers, thereby enabling them to gain profits (violations of the Anti-Corruption Act).

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