Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jung-hyun: "We Need to See the Fact-Finding Results Before Deciding on Withdrawal of Indictments"

[Financial News] Lee Jung-hyun, the newly appointed acting Prosecutor General and Deputy Prosecutor General at the SPO, avoided giving a direct answer when asked during his first commute to work whether indictments would be withdrawn in cases involving President Lee Jae Myung.
Lee arrived at the SPO headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, at around 8:51 a.m. on the 23rd. Asked by reporters about concerns over the possibility of withdrawing indictments in cases involving President Lee, he replied, "The fact-finding investigation is currently underway at the fact-finding team, so I think we need to look at the results." Of the 19 cases being investigated by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Fact-Finding Investigation Team under the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Human Rights Respect and Future Committee, eight are reportedly cases involving President Lee either directly or indirectly. In six of those cases, President Lee was indicted as a defendant and the first trials have been suspended.
When asked whether he had previously criticized the investigation methods used in the Ssangbangwool remittance-to-North Korea case, he said, "That was about my basic philosophy on investigations and investigations initiated based on prosecutors' own findings, I suppose. As I said in that response, every prosecutor general and justice minister over the years has emphasized restrained investigations and high-caliber investigations." He added, "From that perspective, I thought there may have been aspects that did not meet those standards, so I gave a general answer."
Regarding the Ministry of Justice's announcement on the 22nd that it would pursue a reduction in the authorized number of prosecutors, Lee expressed a cautious stance, citing a staff shortage. He said, "When I looked into the Suwon High Prosecutors' Office, a frontline office, I found that there were 600 to 700 unresolved cases, leaving it short of actual working personnel," adding, "I will discuss that matter with the government."
Regarding relations with the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, which is scheduled to launch on the 2nd of next month, he said, "Since the relationship has shifted from a command structure to an equal cooperative relationship, I think we need to further strengthen prior cooperation, including through a consultative body." He added, "I think that would be a desirable relationship between state agencies."


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