This Time Also Different Han Dong-hoon... Refuting the Logic of 'Detention Investigation and Opposition Party Suppression'

Explaining Criminal Charges and Evidence with Examples

Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon on the 27th stated, "The Daejang-dong case, Wirye case, and Seongnam FC case are serious crimes that, due to their nature and scale, warrant detention even if considered individually," and requested the approval of the arrest motion against Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Before the plenary vote on the arrest motion for Representative Lee, Minister Han explained the reasons for submitting the motion that day. He said, "On behalf of the government, I will explain the reasons for requesting the arrest of National Assembly member Lee Jae-myung," and introduced an overview of the charges and evidence against Lee, urging the approval of the arrest motion.

Unlike previous Ministers of Justice who briefly explained the gist of the arrest motion, Minister Han elaborated on the specific reasons for submitting the motion, stating, "We all know what decision aligns with the common sense and law of the Republic of Korea in 2023," and "I believe the public is watching," actively appealing for the approval of the arrest motion. Earlier, during the arrest motion for Democratic Party lawmaker Roh Woong-rae, Minister Han also attracted attention by explaining the submission process differently from his predecessors.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the arrest motion, Minister Han also criticized the arguments Lee had made claiming the unreasonableness of the detention warrant request. Seemingly aware of Lee’s claims against the detention investigation, Minister Han rebutted, "If the argument that ‘there is no risk of flight because he is a prominent politician’ were accepted, then no influential person in this country should be detained regardless of the crime committed, and it would be impossible to explain why former presidents and large conglomerate chairpersons were detained and tried."

Furthermore, addressing claims of oppression against the opposition leader, he asserted, "Nowhere in the explanation is there a ‘crime charge against Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung.’ There are only charges related to ‘local corruption crimes of Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung.’"

Regarding the Daejang-dong development suspicion, Minister Han claimed, "In collusion with Jeong Jin-sang, Yoo Dong-gyu, Kim Man-bae, and others, since 2014, they leaked the project implementation plans to colluding private business operators such as Kim Man-bae, conspired by creating a collusion guideline, and after selecting Kim Man-bae’s group as the project implementer, they maximized profits by measures such as increasing the floor area ratio according to their requests, enabling Kim Man-bae’s group to illegally gain 788.6 billion won and causing a loss of 489.5 billion won to the victim, Seongnam City." Regarding Seongnam FC, he explained, "To prevent the forcibly established Seongnam FC from immediately going bankrupt or suffering political damage, four companies including Naver and Doosan Construction gave bribes amounting to 13.35 billion won to Seongnam FC as payment for resolving specific issues, and to conceal this bribery crime, an organization called ‘Hope Sallim’ was inserted to disguise the criminal proceeds."

On the Daejang-dong suspicion, Minister Han likened it to "a salesperson secretly selling a 1 million won cellphone to an acquaintance for 100,000 won without the owner’s knowledge," adding, "Here, the owner suffers a loss of 900,000 won, and the excuse that ‘at least it earned 100,000 won’ cannot be accepted."

Regarding the bribery charges related to Seongnam FC, he emphasized, "The essence of this crime charge is that the Lee mayor’s side first approached and received bribes from local companies that had manageable pending issues."