Defense Attorney, Battle Against Time
Must Review and Prepare Within 3 Days
[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] On the 4th, the prosecution submitted pre-arrest warrants for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, former Future Strategy Office Chief Choi Ji-sung, and former President Kim Jong-joong, accompanied by investigation records totaling 200,000 pages. The previous morning, 400 volumes were loaded onto a truck and delivered to the court. Each warrant application alone is 150 pages.
This volume exceeds that of the arrest warrant request for former President Park Geun-hye. In March 2017, when the arrest warrant was requested for former President Park on charges of 'state manipulation,' the application was 122 pages, with 220 volumes of investigation records totaling 120,000 pages. This shows how thoroughly the prosecution prepared the warrant request against Vice Chairman Lee this time.
The prosecution reportedly submitted an opinion letter to the court along with the arrest warrant request for Lee and others, requesting to restrict access to the investigation records. The rationale is that since the related investigation is still ongoing and there is a risk of evidence destruction or flight by the suspects, the records cannot be shown.
According to Article 9 of the Supreme Court's regulations on the handling of personal detention affairs, when a defense attorney participating in the suspect's interrogation requests to review investigation records, the district court judge may specify the documents allowed for review and designate the time and place for such review. However, the prosecution is known to have restricted access to all documents except the warrant application itself, based on Paragraph 2 of the same regulation.
From Vice Chairman Lee's perspective, he must review the arrest warrant application over the next three days and present his defense at the warrant hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on the 8th before Judge Won Jeong-sook, who is in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court. However, exercising the right to defense is not an easy situation. Unlike general criminal trials, the warrant hearing does not include a procedure for agreeing or disagreeing with evidence. In other words, Lee's defense team must build their arguments against the prosecution's records, which contain only unfavorable evidence, in a very limited setting. Lee's defense attorney Lee Dong-yeol said, "It is an obligation that any defense attorney should fulfill."
The court is also making thorough preparations for the unprecedented prosecution's warrant request. Typically, judges in charge of warrants decide on the issuance of warrants for more than five suspects in a day, but Judge Won plans to review only this single case on the day of Lee's hearing, provided the suspects appear in court as scheduled. This reflects how much attention the court is giving to this warrant hearing.
Judge Won will listen to the opinions of both the prosecution and the defense during the hearing, review the submitted documents, and decide whether to issue the arrest warrant. The decision is expected as early as late afternoon on the same day or by early morning the next day.
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