"Lee Jae-myung's Side Says 'Don't Know Late Kim Moon-gi' and Demands Proof That Recognition Persisted in Mind"

"The defendant's statements of 'knowing' or 'not knowing' are purely subjective. (The prosecution) must prove that these are false by demonstrating whether such awareness existed in the defendant's mind." (Defense attorney)

The camp of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was indicted on charges of making false statements that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, argued in court that the prosecution must prove whether Lee's awareness persisted.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is accused of violating the Public Official Election Act, is attending a trial held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 2nd. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the 2nd, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 34 (Presiding Judge Kang Gyu-tae) held the 6th trial of Lee, who was indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act.

On this day, Lee's defense attorney argued, "The prosecution's evidence regarding the charges is insufficient," and stated, "'To prove it as false,' it must be demonstrated through circumstances that the defendant had the awareness of knowing at that time or that it can be reasonably inferred he knew."

The defense attorney said, "The closest point in this case is five years ago," and added, "It must be proven that this awareness was properly formed around that time and continued until December 2021." He also said, "In debates or talk show Q&A sessions, not everything is asked in the first question but is revealed progressively," and "If one were to retrospectively imply meanings in the answer to the first question of 'Do you know someone?' then it would be impossible to answer."

He continued, "The question asked at that time was 'Do you know him personally?'" and added, "Having a few conversations in a public setting does not deepen the relationship," and "(Meeting publicly) does not necessarily increase the information to the extent that one would say they know each other personally."

The prosecution responded, "The statement that he did not know at a specific point in time is a statement about the act, and denying the suspicion of accompanying former Director Kim during the Australia trip is also a statement related to the defendant's actions," and said, "The defense's argument confuses the nature and the external content of the statements."

Earlier, Lee was indicted on charges of publicly announcing false information during an interview with a broadcasting company on December 22, 2021, when he was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, stating that he "did not know him while serving as mayor because he was a subordinate employee." Former Director Kim was found dead in the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation office the day before Lee's statement. He was a key figure in the Daejang-dong development project scandal and was under investigation by the prosecution.

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