Lee Jae-myung in Perjury Coaching Trial: "Prosecutors Include Only Unfavorable Details in Indictment"

Kim Jinseong's Side: "Wish He Hadn't Claimed Innocence... Afraid of Trial Facing Lee"

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, claimed in the first trial of the perjury coaching charge case that "the prosecution only included content unfavorable to the defendant in the indictment."

On the 22nd, Lee made this statement during the first hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 33 (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hyun), where he was given the opportunity to speak directly.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

Lee spoke for about 16 minutes. He said, "If you look at the transcript, I repeatedly told Kim Jin-sung about 12 times to 'speak as you remember, speak as it is, try to recall your memory, and not to say you saw something you didn't see,'" adding, "The prosecution distorted the indictment by excluding content favorable to the defendant."

He argued that although the transcript contains conversations where he asked Kim, who was the late Kim Byung-ryang, former mayor of Seongnam’s secretary, to "testify according to actual memory," the prosecution deliberately omitted this from the indictment.

Lee stated, "Kim had previously filed a complaint against me on behalf of former Mayor Kim, which led to my detention, and as a result, Mayor Kim Byung-ryang lost the election, and Kim was also detained and punished in connection with that," adding, "Kim and I have a kind of love-hate and dangerous relationship, so there is no reason to ask him to lie."

On the other hand, Kim, who was co-indicted for perjury at Lee’s request, admitted all charges. He also pointed out, "The Lee side is making claims of innocence that 'Kim did not give false testimony,' but I hope they stop doing that."

He further said, "Kim is still active in Seongnam and is quite afraid to face the defendant, who served as Seongnam mayor and Gyeonggi Province governor, in court," and requested Lee Jae-myung’s withdrawal during the trial. The court decided to separate the defense arguments of Lee and Kim and proceed with separate trials.

Regarding the separately indicted 'Baekhyeon-dong development preferential treatment suspicion,' Lee also claimed that the prosecution concealed content favorable to him. He explained, "In the transcript of a phone call between Kim and me at the end of 2018, it was the first contact in six years since 2012, and I asked about Kim In-seop’s well-being," adding, "Kim mentioned the Korea Food Research Institute and told me that Kim In-seop was on trial."

Kim In-seop is a figure accused of lobbying Seongnam to grant various favors to private contractors in the Baekhyeon-dong project. Lee said, "If the prosecution had presented this transcript during the investigation, I would have countered, 'Look, this proves that Lee Jae-myung was unaware of the Baekhyeon-dong development project until December 2018,'" and claimed, "They hid it during the investigation."

He also criticized, "The prosecution did not submit this transcript as evidence in the breach of trust case related to Baekhyeon-dong development, which I believe was intentional," and added, "They have an obligation to submit materials favorable to the defendant."

In response, the prosecution rebutted, "There are too many inaccuracies in the defendant’s claims," and said, "We don’t understand why Lee suddenly claims that the relationship was severed for six years when there are records of congratulatory money and text or call logs when Kim’s daughter got married." They also claimed that the transcript in which Lee asked about Kim In-seop’s well-being was submitted as evidence in the related trial.