Lee Jae-myung’s 12-and-a-half-hour ‘Daejang-dong’ investigation comes to an end… Prosecutor’s Office “Requires Second Attendance”

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myeong, who is suspected of corruption in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development projects in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, returned home around 11 pm on the 28th after for the prosecution to investigate. It has been 12 and a half hours since he appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office at 10:30am on the same day.

After being investigated, Lee left the building of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and told reporters, “I feel that Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol is doing politics, not investigation, as a prosecutor under a dictatorship .”

Representative Lee said, “I cannot get rid of the feeling that (the prosecution) is not conducting an investigation to discover the truth, but is manipulating with the goal of an indictment.” This act of presenting the data presented again is very wrong an act of privatizing the power of the state.”

CEO Lee said, “I will fight more faithfully and firmly for the calling that is given to me.” After getting into the vehicle, CEO Lee got off the vehicle for a while in front of the front gate of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office and bowed to the supporters who were at the rally.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office asked Lee for a second appearance, saying additional investigation was needed. Prosecutors have expressed their position that the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town projects should be investigated twice because there is a lot to investigate as the projects were carried out over a long period of time.

However, as CEO Lee said the prosecution deliberately delayed the investigation, it is unclear whether a second attendance investigation will be conducted. Representative Lee is said to have protested that the prosecution’s ‘repeated questioning and presentation of data’, ‘the act of asking opinion for opinion’, and the ‘act of reading data’ during the investigative process were unfair strategies for further investigation. The prosecutors explained, “The investigation team did not delay the investigation at all, and proceeded with the investigation promptly.”

Between 10:30 am and 9 pm, a question and answer session was held where the prosecutor asked questions about the charges and Lee answered. From then until about 11:00 PM, Lee’s side read the suspect’s newspaper report and checked if anything was written differently from what was stated.

During his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, CEO Lee is accused of causing damages to Seongnam Urban Development Corporation by driving profits to private businesses while carrying out projects in Wirye and Daejang-dong. There is also an allegation of leaking Seongnam City’s insider secrets to private business operators so they can gain property (violation of the Anti-Corruption Act).

Lee has flatly denied the allegations. In a statement released on the day, CEO Lee said, “In a word, it is an absurd and slanderous claim” regarding the suspicion that Lee is the real owner of Cheonhwa-dong No. 1, where profits from the Daejang-dong development are distributed the project.