Former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young did not agree to the acceptance of the prosecution's suspect interrogation record, which partially acknowledged the connection between Ssangbangwool Group's 'North Korea remittance' allegations and Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, as evidence in the trial.
The court stated that Lee's opinion could change again, so it reserved judgment on the defense counsel's opinion and decided to reconsider it later.
At the 46th hearing on the violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and other charges against Lee, held on the 12th at the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo), Lee's defense attorney Kim Kwang-min responded "Yes" to the court's question, "Did the defendant submit an opinion refusing the evidence on the grounds of denying voluntariness regarding the prosecution's suspect interrogation record?"
The prosecution submitted an additional piece of evidence to the court in mid-July, which was a statement record in which Lee partially reversed his previous position regarding the North Korea remittance.
According to this record, Lee testified to the prosecution that "I requested Ssangbangwool to promote the Gyeonggi Province governor's visit to North Korea," and "I reported to Lee Jae-myung, then governor and now Democratic Party leader, that 'Ssangbangwool spent money in North Korea while doing business, so I think we (the governor's visit) also paid attention to it.'"
At that time, Kim Hyung-tae, a lawyer from the law firm Deoksu who was representing Lee, submitted an opinion refusing the evidence to the court, but Lee stated that he did not agree with his defense counsel's opinion, leading to the rejection of the defense counsel's opinion letter. After a month, on this day, Lee's side again opposed the acceptance of the interrogation record as evidence, reversing their position once more.
The prosecution raised doubts about whether Kim Kwang-min, who was newly appointed earlier this month, submitted the opinion without thoroughly reviewing the voluminous records, given Lee's side changed their stance and refused the statement record on this day.
"Even the court-appointed lawyer said they couldn't review all the records, so is it possible for the newly appointed lawyer to review everything?" they said. "Since the lawyer is currently a Gyeonggi Province assembly member and is about to investigate a very important person (Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung), didn't they hastily submit the opinion to assist?"
In response, Attorney Kim said, "We had no plans to submit the opinion urgently, but the prosecution contacted us directly and asked us to submit it quickly, so we did," adding, "Raising issues about the current lawyer's status itself could put pressure on the defendant."
The court reserved judgment on Lee's side's opinion, stating, "Since the defendant's evidence opinion may change, we will not immediately conduct evidence examination to determine evidentiary admissibility." The court also ordered the defense counsel to refrain from media reports that could affect the trial proceedings.
Meanwhile, Attorney Kim Kwang-min explained to reporters' questions about whether Lee's statements keep changing, "Defendant Lee Hwa-young initially said around June that he reported certain things to Leader Lee, but now he denies that statement," adding, "He has reverted a statement he once changed."
Regarding this, a prosecution official said, "Judicial obstruction and delay have been occurring around the trial, and now it is escalating into judicial manipulation behavior."
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