Lee Jae-myung Directly Refutes for Over 30 Minutes in Court: "According to the Prosecution, It's a 50-Year Sentence"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, arrived at the Seoul Central District Court on the 17th to attend the trial regarding the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development favoritism and Seongnam FC sponsorship fund allegations, and is getting out of the car. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, spent over 30 minutes on the 17th systematically refuting the prosecution's claims in the trial concerning the 'Daejang-dong, Wirye, Seongnam FC' allegations case.

On that day, Lee appeared at the 2nd hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 33 (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hyun) and said, "Listening to the prosecution, it sounds like I would be sentenced to 50 years in prison, so why would I do such a thing?"

Regarding the Daejang-dong project, Lee stated, "My political conviction is that a significant portion of the unearned income from real estate speculation must be recovered," and added, "I have never had a cup of tea with the developers, nor did I gain even a 10-won development profit."

He emphasized, "The moment an administrative agency decides to recover some profits by exercising its public authority in good faith, it does not mean that the discretionary power or policy decision authority I hold becomes mandatory."

On setting the Seongnam city side's profit in the Daejang-dong project as a fixed amount rather than a ratio, Lee argued, "If the real estate market had turned out worse than predicted, fixing the profit would have been a good decision. But who is a god to predict real estate or the economy, humans or what?"

He continued, "The prosecution claims that we proposed a fixed amount, but we actually asked them to compete on how much profit to allocate to the corporation," and said, "The idea that fixed profits themselves constitute breach of trust is nonsense."

Lee also said, "Since we created Seongnam Urban Development Corporation (the corporation) to recover profits, it seems the prosecution's position is that private developers should be squeezed to the point of abandoning the project to recover profits," and questioned, "Why should an administrative agency do that? I'm not a communist."

Regarding the prosecution's claim that private developers supported Lee's re-election as Seongnam mayor, he denied it, saying, "I don't even know about that, and it makes no sense," and added, "With how advanced forensic technology is, shouldn't they have found even a single comment?"

On the allegations of illegal donations to Seongnam FC, Lee said, "I want to ask what benefit I gained," and denied the charges, stating, "If a developer provides cash support related to public officials, it could be a violation of donation laws or abuse of authority, so naturally, I was cautious."

He appealed, "What I want to tell the court is that if public duties are questioned retrospectively like this, public officials will never act," and said, "If things go well, it's nothing, but if not, they must endure criminal punishment. Why would anyone do that?"

Regarding the prosecution's investigation, he criticized, "They have investigated me for years on suspicion that I might have gained some benefit, and even now, they are forming a special investigation team, going through a truly painful process," and added, "It's like looking at a mountain and a forest, but the prosecution is entering the forest with a microscope and DNA analyzer, digging into the ground."

Lee was indicted on charges of approving a Daejang-dong development project structure favorable to private developers during his tenure as Seongnam mayor, causing a loss of 489.5 billion won to the corporation, and leaking official secrets through aides, enabling private developers to gain 788.6 billion won.

He is also charged with allowing private developers to gain an unfair profit of 21.1 billion won in the November 2013 Wirye New Town development project, and as the owner of Seongnam FC, receiving sponsorship funds of 13.35 billion won from companies in exchange for providing conveniences such as building permits and land use changes.

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