The prosecution is reported to have determined that former Deputy Director Kim Yong of the Democratic Research Institute was informed of and approved his close aides' plan for 'false alibi perjury' while in detention.
According to the legal community on the 21st, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) included this judgment as the basis in related materials such as the arrest warrant requests for Park Mo and Seo Mo, who were detained on the 15th on charges including perjury instruction. Both are former members of the situation room of Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party's presidential election campaign committee.
According to the contents presented to the warrant court, the prosecution confirmed circumstances where, immediately after Kim was arrested on October 19, 2022, Park and Seo held a countermeasure meeting at a location in Yeouido with Lee Woo-jong, former president of the Gyeonggi Art Center, and Sung Jun-ho, deputy spokesperson of the Democratic Party, who are considered close aides of Lee.
The prosecution's judgment is that this meeting later developed into the 'Kim Yong Trial Response TF' and that under the direction of former President Lee, they established an 'alibi fabrication operation.' In particular, it is reported that at a meeting held shortly after Kim's detention and indictment on November 8, 2022, they viewed the prosecution's failure to specifically pinpoint the timing of Kim's receipt of money as a 'weakness' in the indictment and decided to focus their attack there.
Accordingly, TF members are said to have gathered schedules not only of Kim but also of related figures in the presidential campaign and organized them into a 'schedule' file. The prosecution suspects that collecting schedules of not only Kim but also surrounding figures indicates an intention to fabricate alibis from the beginning.
At Kim's request, when the prosecution specified the date of the money receipt as May 3, 2021, in April last year, the prosecution believes that among the collected materials, they confirmed that former Director Lee Mo of the Gyeonggi Market Promotion Agency and former Director Shin Mo of the Gyeonggi Energy Center met on that date and created a 'false scenario.'
Furthermore, the prosecution is reported to have judged that this perjury plan was also reported to Kim, who was incarcerated in the detention center at the time, and that Kim himself directed the main points.
In response to this prosecution judgment, Kim's side denied it, saying, "It is completely untrue." Attorney Kim Ki-pyo issued a statement that day, saying, "Immediately after the trial began, Kim's side verified all alibis for the broad crime dates presented by the prosecution to prepare for the trial," and added, "When the prosecution specified the crime date as May 3, 2021, they re-checked with Mr. Shin, who had already confirmed in December 2022 that he met Kim on that date, and upon confirming that he indeed met Mr. Lee, they also checked with Mr. Lee and requested his testimony."
He continued, "It appears that Mr. Lee gave statements completely different from the facts under the prosecution's pressure investigation," and emphasized, "At that time, Kim's side was confident that it could sufficiently prove by other facts that money was not received on May 3, so there was neither reason nor need to commit perjury."
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