Lee Jae-myung Returns Home After 13.5-Hour Investigation... "Setting a Goal and Matching Events and Facts"

Prosecutors Review Detention Based on Investigation Results

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who appeared before the prosecution on the 17th as a suspect in connection with preferential treatment allegations in the Baekhyeon-dong development project, said after a 13-and-a-half-hour investigation, "The prosecution sets a target and tries to fit the facts to the case."

Arriving near the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, at around 9:25 a.m. on the 17th, Lee read a prepared statement for about 15 minutes before entering the building and immediately began the investigation, which ended at 12:01 a.m. on the 18th.

In the early morning of the 18th, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who had just finished a prosecution investigation, is answering questions from the waiting press.

To the waiting press, Lee expressed his thoughts after the investigation, saying, "According to objective facts, this is a matter that cannot be problematic at all, but I could not shake the feeling that the prosecution had set a target and was trying to fit the facts and the case together."

He also said, "I told you that the Korea Food Research Institute, which sold the land on the condition of a change of use but contracted at the pre-change price, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which approved it, are truly guilty of breach of trust."

About ten lawmakers, including Democratic Party leaders such as Supreme Council members Jeong Cheong-rae, Park Chan-dae, Seo Young-kyo, Jang Kyung-tae, Secretary-General Jo Jeong-sik, and Policy Committee Chairman Kim Min-seok, waited for Lee to finish his investigation and greeted him. After exchanging greetings with the lawmakers, Lee waved his hand or gave a thumbs-up to his supporters.

The Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) investigated Lee, who appeared at around 9:45 a.m. the previous day, on charges of breach of trust under the Specific Economic Crimes Act related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project and charges of witness tampering in Lee's public official election law violation trial. Due to the large volume of investigation, the prosecution reportedly started the investigation immediately without separate procedures such as tea breaks.

Lee's investigation was completed around 9 p.m. the previous day without overnight questioning. Afterwards, Lee reviewed the investigation records for about three hours.

A prosecution official said, "The investigation was conducted efficiently and has been largely completed."

Two prosecutors, including Deputy Chief Prosecutor Choi Jae-soon (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 37), were in charge of Lee's investigation, and lawyer Park Gyun-taek (class 21), a former Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office chief, participated as Lee's defense counsel. Lee had lunch and dinner delivered during the investigation.

The prosecution prepared a 300-page questionnaire, but Lee submitted a 30-page written statement denying the allegations prepared in advance and reportedly replaced most answers to questions with the written statement except for some parts he wanted to emphasize. The Democratic Party's Public Relations Department stated that Lee responded to the prosecution's investigation based on the written statement and actively explained necessary parts.

The preferential treatment allegations in the Baekhyeon-dong development project concern changes in development permit conditions favoring private developers such as Chairman Jeong Ba-ul of Asia Developer for a project to build and sell apartments on the 111,265㎡ site of the former Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si. According to the Mountainous Area Management Act, when cutting into mountainous terrain to build structures, the vertical height of retaining walls must not exceed 15 meters, but at the time, Seongnam City approved a change of use allowing apartments with retaining walls about 50 meters high in Baekhyeon-dong. Through this, Asia Developer earned about 300 billion won in sales revenue.

The prosecution believes that Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology (currently incarcerated), who had a close political relationship with Lee and his aide Jeong Jin-sang, former political coordination officer of the Democratic Party leader's office, and Kim's aide Kim (last name withheld), who served as Lee's election campaign chairman in 2006 and helped Lee's Seongnam mayoral election, requested and succeeded in changing the land use from natural green area to quasi-residential area in four stages in 2015 by lobbying Lee, then mayor of Seongnam, Jeong Jin-sang, then policy secretary, and relevant Seongnam city officials. Kim maintained close ties with many Seongnam city officials through the Honam Hometown Association and others.

Previously, the arrest warrant for Kim, an aide to former Democratic Party leader Kim, filed by the prosecution on charges including aggravated bribery under the Specific Crimes Aggravation Act, stated that Kim promised to receive 7 billion won from Chairman Jeong as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project alongside Lee and Jeong, and actually received 3.5 billion won. Kim worked as a secretary to former Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang from July 1998 to June 2002 and later as a CEO of a real estate consulting company in Yongin.

The prosecution believes that in November 2013, Kim and former leader Kim showed Chairman Jeong their close ties with Lee, then mayor of Seongnam, and Jeong, then the de facto second-in-command at Seongnam City Hall, boasting of their influence over Seongnam City Hall, and promised to receive shares that would yield huge dividends if the Baekhyeon-dong project succeeded in exchange for resolving various permits related to the project.

A prosecution official said, "This case is essentially about excluding public corporations from participation in a project that should have been publicly developed, thereby forfeiting development profits that should have been rightfully secured and allowing them to belong to the developer," adding, "The part where (Lee) said 'I never pursued personal gain of even one won' is unrelated to breach of trust."

Lee is also accused of instructing businessman Kim, an aide to former leader Kim, to give favorable testimony in a false statement charge trial related to the 'prosecutor impersonation' case in February 2019. The prosecution's judgment is that Lee asked Kim to testify favorably for him in the trial related to the prosecutor impersonation case, and Kim appeared as a witness at Lee's public official election law violation trial at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch on February 14, 2019, took the oath, and testified that there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw a complaint against Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS, although he did not know or remember if such an agreement or atmosphere actually existed.

Since Lee is effectively exercising his right to remain silent, the possibility of additional summons for questioning appears low. The prosecution plans to decide on Lee's custody based on the investigation results.

Regarding the Baekhyeon-dong allegations alone, the prosecution still has several options, including whether to request an arrest warrant for Lee, whether to combine it with charges related to 'illegal remittances to North Korea' under investigation by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, whether to request it during the National Assembly session, or to avoid the session.

Lee may also be summoned again by the prosecution for other cases. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office continues to investigate the '428 billion won contract rumor,' part of the 'Daejang-dong development corruption' allegations, while the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office is checking Lee's involvement or awareness regarding the 'Ssangbangwool Group illegal remittance to North Korea' allegations. The 'lawyer fee payment' suspicion is also under investigation. The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office is examining the connection between Lee and the 'Jeongja-dong hotel development preferential treatment' allegations. Lee is simultaneously on trial at the Seoul Central District Court for public official election law violations related to the Wirye and Daejang-dong development corruption, illegal sponsorship of Seongnam FC, and statements about the late Kim Moon-gi.

Before appearing at the prosecution on this day, Lee reiterated his stance, saying, "If they want to request an arrest warrant, I will voluntarily appear and undergo the hearing. There will be no National Assembly session for me," indicating he would not exercise parliamentary immunity and would face the warrant hearing.

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