Lee In-gyu: "Moon Jae-in Became President by Creating a False Altar Over Roh's Corpse"

Former head of the Central Investigation Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Lee In-gyu, who was responsible for the investigation of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, is publishing a book on the 17th claiming that all bribery allegations were true.

Former Deputy Chief of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Central Investigation Department, Lee In-gyu's book
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on that day, Lee published a memoir titled "I Was a Prosecutor of the Republic of Korea - Who Killed Roh Moo-hyun?" (Jogabje.com, 532 pages). In the book, he detailed the bribery allegations against former President Roh and his family, emphasizing them as "undisputed facts," and largely attributed the responsibility for Roh's death to former President Moon Jae-in, who was Roh's lawyer at the time.

According to the book introduction materials distributed by Jogabje.com on that day, Lee described in detail the allegations and investigation results concerning former President Roh. He asserted that there is no dispute over the fact that Mrs. Kwon Yang-sook received two sets of Piaget men's and women's watches (market value 205.5 million KRW) from the late Chairman Park Yeon-cha, and that it is highly likely these were delivered as bribes to former President Roh in September 2006 during his term.

He also stated that on June 29, 2007, Mrs. Kwon, in collusion with former President Roh, received 1 million USD from Chairman Park through then Secretary-General Jeong Sang-moon at the Blue House, and an additional 400,000 USD on September 22 of the same year. He wrote that this was under the pretext of funds for purchasing a house in the United States for their son, Roh Gun-ho.

On February 22, 2008, Gun-ho and his nephew-in-law Yeon Cheol-ho received 5 million USD from Chairman Park, which was used for business purposes, and Lee noted that this is also "undisputed."

Although Jeong, the former secretary, claimed sole responsibility for embezzling 1.25 billion KRW in special activity funds, Lee argued that it is reasonable to view it as a crime in which former President Roh was complicit.

He stated that the prosecution at the time had secured sufficient physical evidence to indict former President Roh on these charges and obtain a guilty verdict, but the case was dismissed due to his death, resulting in a "no prosecution" decision.

Former Head of the Central Investigation Department Lee In-gyu (Photo by Yonhap News)

Lee recalled that upon learning belatedly that former President Roh, who had promoted him to chief prosecutor, was involved in the Park Yeon-cha scandal, he felt "like riding a tiger," but judged that failing to investigate despite knowing this would be dereliction of duty as a prosecutor, so he continued the investigation.

The book also details conversations that took place on April 30, 2009, when former President Roh appeared before the Central Investigation Department. Lee wrote that at the time, Woo Byung-woo, head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Central Investigation Division 1, requested a confrontation interrogation between former President Roh and Chairman Park, but when Roh's side refused, they were only allowed to meet face-to-face.

Lee recalled that in the interrogation room, Chairman Park said, "President, what are you doing like this!" to which former President Roh replied, "Chairman Park, you've been through a lot. I might be going to jail too. If I go to jail, let's communicate."

Lee pointed out that for suspects denying wrongdoing, refusing confrontation interrogation could give the impression that they are hiding something or lying to investigators, so refusal is not a wise choice. He also claimed that former President Roh said, "Director Lee, let's take away the watches. It's embarrassing."

Lee attributed a significant part of the cause of former President Roh's death to the "incompetence and irresponsibility" of former President Moon Jae-in as his lawyer.

He criticized Moon for writing in his book "Destiny" that "the prosecution had no evidence other than Chairman Park's testimony," stating, "He never saw the prosecution's investigation records, never attempted to contact the prosecution to understand the investigation details, and never submitted even a single opinion letter, so I cannot understand on what basis he makes such claims."

He further argued, "If, as a lawyer, former President Moon had visited the prosecution, asked for their honest position, and clarified the facts through discussions about the evidence, former President Roh would not have been driven to death," and claimed, "He should not have taken on the defense." He went on to assert that Moon "built an altar of lies over Roh Moo-hyun's corpse and became president."

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