Prosecutors Request Disciplinary Action Against Lee Yong-gu for 'Taxi Driver Assault' to Bar Association

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 7th that it has requested the Korean Bar Association to initiate disciplinary proceedings against former Vice Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu, who was indicted on charges of assaulting a taxi driver.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office indicted former Vice Minister Lee without detention last September on charges of assaulting a driver under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and instructing the destruction of evidence.

Former Vice Minister Lee is accused of grabbing and pushing the neck of a taxi driver while intoxicated on November 6 last year, during a taxi ride home, and subsequently requesting the deletion of the black box video footage.

According to the current Attorney-at-Law Act, if a chief prosecutor of a district prosecutor's office discovers misconduct by an attorney during investigations or other duties, they must request the head of the Korean Bar Association to initiate disciplinary proceedings.

The prosecution explained the delay in initiating disciplinary proceedings after the indictment as "an issue caused by a simple error in the work process," adding that "once the problem was identified, the request to initiate disciplinary proceedings was made immediately."