Lee Jun-seok almost off the hook in sex services scandal

Politics

Published: 21 Sep. 2022, 15:41

Lee Jun-seok almost off the hook in sex services scandal

Lee Jun-seok, former chairman of the People Power Party, speaks to reporters at the Seoul Southern District Court in Yangcheon District, southern Seoul, on Sept. 14 to attend a hearing over a court injunction he filed to suspend the PPP’s emergency steering committee. [NEWS1]

Police decided against referring Lee Jun-seok, former chairman of the People Power Party (PPP), to prosecutors for indictment over allegedly taking sexual services as a bribe because the statute of limitations expired.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that it decided to drop the case against Lee for violating the Act on the Punishment of Arrangement of Commercial Sex Acts because the incident happened in 2013. The statute of limitations is seven years.

Last Saturday, Lee was grilled by the police agency's anticorruption and public crime investigation division for 12 hours over allegations that he received sexual services and other favors paid for by Kim Sung-jin, CEO of the tech company i-Kaist, twice in Daejeon in 2013. Kim is accused of trying to get President Park Geun-hye to visit his company.

Kim has been serving a nine-year prison sentence for fraud since 2018 in a separate case.

Lee was considered a protégé of Park after he entered politics in 2011 as a member of an interim emergency steering committee of the Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the PPP.

Police also dropped a case against Lee allegedly taking gifts from Kim over the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays of 2015, citing insufficient evidence.

However, police are expected to continue an investigation into Lee's alleged attempted to cover up the sexual bribery incident.

Police started investigating Lee after sexual bribery allegations were raised on a right-wing YouTube channel, Garosero Research Institute, last December.

The channel reported that Lee attempted to cover up the scandal through Kim Cheol-geun, his political affairs chief, who promised an investment of 700 million won ($560,000) to an informant surnamed Jang in exchange for a statement denying the sexual favors took place. Jang, who claims to have brokered the sexual services, gave the YouTube channel a statement allegedly handwritten by Kim pledging the money.

Lee sued the YouTube channel for libel, and the operators of Garosero filed a countersuit.

In July, the PPP's ethics committee decided to suspend Lee's party membership for six months over the allegations of sexual bribery allegations and cover-up attempt and later formed an interim leadership, effectively ousting Lee as the party's chairman. Lee's two-year term as PPP chairman was initially set to expire next January.

Lee in turn filed a series of requests for court injunctions against the PPP and made disparaging statements about President Yoon Suk-yeol and his allies in the party.

On Sunday, a PPP ethics committee started reviewing disciplinary action against Lee for making the disparaging remarks and damaging the party's reputation. Since Lee is already suspended, the next course of action could include expulsion from the party.

On Monday, PPP interim leader Chung Jin-suk was photographed during a parliamentary session checking text messages exchanged with an ethics committee member discussing the possibility of expelling Lee.

Chung suggested heavier disciplinary action against Lee in texts sent to Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, a member of the party's ethics committee. Yoo replied that the party should expel him if he is indicted.

Chung said the text messages photographed were actually sent on Aug. 13, before he was named the chair of the PPP's emergency steering committee earlier this month.

Later Monday, Yoo resigned from the ethics committee, admitting it was inappropriate to share his personal views as a member of the committee.

After the police decision, Lee posted on Facebook, "It's a good Tuesday to join the party," apparently appealing to party members to support him.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]