Lee side denies charges in first trial of 'Daejang-dong·Seongnam FC'... "First trial likely to take 1-2 years"

The camp of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, completely denied the allegations in the first trial regarding the 'special favors in the development of Wirye New Town and Daejang-dong' and the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship fund' suspicions.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is accused of spreading false information under the Public Official Election Act, is attending a trial held on March 31 at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the 11th, the Criminal Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hyun) held a preparatory hearing for the trial of Lee, who was indicted on charges including breach of trust and bribery.

The preparatory hearing is a procedure to hear the opinions of both the prosecution and defense and to establish future proof plans. Since the defendant is not required to attend, Lee did not appear in court.

On that day, Lee's defense attorney stated, "We deny all the charges," adding, "Despite mobilizing hundreds of personnel and conducting hundreds of extensive searches, no evidence has been presented that Lee received even a single penny of illicit money."

Regarding the allegations related to Wirye and Daejang-dong, the defense said, "The prosecution claims this case is a local corruption crime centered on Lee, but that is completely untrue," and emphasized, "The prosecution bases everything on the reversed testimony of Yoo Dong-gyu, claiming collusion with Lee, but there is no evidence of when or where such collusion occurred."

Regarding the Seongnam FC allegations, they stated, "There was no pursuit of private gain, nor could there have been," and added, "If there is political benefit that receives positive evaluations from citizens, it is rather a positive value that should be actively pursued."

The court decided to hold the second preparatory hearing on July 6. The records submitted to the court amount to about 200 volumes related to Daejang-dong, about 50 volumes related to Wirye New Town, and about 400 volumes related to Seongnam FC, totaling approximately 200,000 pages. Jeong Jin-sang, former chief of political coordination at the Democratic Party's representative office, who was indicted alongside Lee, also said, "It seems it will take about a year just to review the records. The copying costs alone amount to 10 million won," adding, "We must read all the evidence records thoroughly and deeply consider them to exercise the right to defense." The court predicted, "The proceedings will likely take about one to two years."

Lee was brought to trial on charges including approving a Daejang-dong development project structure favorable to private developers during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, causing a loss of 489.5 billion won to the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, and leaking official secrets to developers through aides, enabling them to gain 788.6 billion won. He also faces charges of providing insider information to private developers through aides in the Wirye New Town development project, resulting in an unfair gain of 21.1 billion won.

Additionally, as the owner of Seongnam FC, he is accused of providing conveniences such as building permits and land use changes in exchange for sponsorship funds of 13.35 billion won from four companies, and of demanding operating funds from companies in exchange for selling Seongnam city-owned land. Jeong Jin-sang, considered Lee's closest aide and former chief of political coordination at the Democratic Party's representative office, was also indicted as an accomplice in the Daejang-dong breach of trust and Seongnam FC sponsorship fund cases and is being tried together.

Meanwhile, Lee is also indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act and is undergoing a separate trial under the Criminal Division 34 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Kang Gyu-tae). The charges in the Public Official Election Act violation case include Lee's false statement during the 2021 presidential election process that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, during his time as mayor of Seongnam. He is also accused of making false statements related to the special favor suspicions regarding the land use change of the Baekhyeon-dong Korea Food Research Institute site during a national audit. The next trial date for this case is scheduled for the 19th.

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