'Ehwahong' Lawyer Haegwang Finally Resigns... Trial on the 22nd Also Unavoidably Delayed

The legal team from Haegwang Law Firm, which was responsible for defending Lee Hwa-young, former Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province, who was involved in the Ssangbangwool Group's North Korea remittance case, has ultimately resigned. This comes about a month after controversy arose over the dismissal of the defense counsel following reports that Lee reversed his testimony to the prosecution. The trial scheduled for the 22nd is inevitably facing a standstill.

Lee Hwa-young, former Deputy Governor for Peace of Gyeonggi Province

According to the legal community on the 21st, Haegwang Law Firm submitted a letter of resignation to the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 11 (Chief Judge Shin Jin-woo) on the same day.

Haegwang stated that "Lee’s wife has continuously opposed Haegwang’s defense and has not stopped criticizing the lawyers with false statements," and that they decided to resign because they judged it difficult to continue normal defense based on a trust relationship.

After Lee’s wife, Ms. Baek, submitted a dismissal report against Haegwang Law Firm on the 18th of last month, claiming that her husband was isolated and under psychological pressure due to his reversal of testimony related to the North Korea remittance, Haegwang did not attend the two subsequent trial dates.

On the 8th, Lee expressed at the trial that "My wife’s intention to dismiss the defense counsel was a misunderstanding of my position," and voiced his desire to continue receiving defense from Haegwang.

Over the past month, Haegwang has been meeting with Lee continuously and requested that he reconcile differences with his wife and inform them by noon on the 21st, but it is reported that the family’s positions had not been reconciled by that day.

Haegwang had been solely responsible for Lee’s defense for about nine months until July, since Lee was indicted and detained last October on charges including violation of the Political Funds Act and bribery.

With Haegwang’s resignation, the trial scheduled for the 22nd is highly likely to be delayed again, following the adjournments on the 25th of last month and the 8th of this month. The original plan for the 22nd trial included witness examinations of Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of Ssangbangwool Group, and Ahn Bu-su, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Cooperation Association.

According to records, there are two other lawyers, including Hyun Geun-taek, listed as Lee’s defense counsel, but these lawyers have only attended Lee’s prosecution investigations a few times and have never participated in the trial. Therefore, there is a high possibility that a court-appointed public defender, proposed by the prosecution at the last trial, will be appointed. Even if a public defender is appointed, reviewing the trial records is expected to take considerable time, so it is uncertain when Lee’s trial will return to normal.

Meanwhile, the 'Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance' suspicion involves former Ssangbangwool Group chairman Kim allegedly sending a total of 8 million dollars to North Korea in 2019 at Lee’s request. This included 5 million dollars for a North Korean smart farm support project that Gyeonggi Province was supposed to fund, and 3 million dollars for the governor’s visit expenses demanded by the North at that time. Lee reportedly testified in a recent prosecution investigation that "I requested Ssangbangwool to promote the Gyeonggi governor’s visit to North Korea," and that he reported to Lee Jae-myung, then governor and now leader of the Democratic Party, that "Ssangbangwool spent money in North Korea while doing business, so I thought the governor’s visit would have been taken care of."

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