DP leader Lee Jae-myung maintains innocence as he goes in for questioning

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DP leader Lee Jae-myung maintains innocence as he goes in for questioning

Published: 10 Jan. 2023, 11:42

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung before making his statement before entering the prosecutors’ office for investigation in Suwon, Gyeonggi, Tuesday while being surrounded by other DP lawmakers. Lee is being investigated for a quid pro quo when he served as mayor of Seongnam city. [YONHAP]

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung maintained his innocence on the allegation of a quid pro quo while he was serving as mayor of Seongnam, but accused the attack by the prosecutors as political as he spoke in front of the Suwon Prosecutors' office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on Tuesday, just before walking in to be questioned.

“I am well aware that the summoned investigation [today] is a trap dug up by the political prosecutors,” Lee said. “Not only is this unprecedented persecution the first summoning of a leader of a [main] opposition party in modern history, but it is also a judiciary coup by bringing back cases that have been cleared of suspicion.”

The DP leader said what he did as mayor and what the employees of the Seongnam city government did was for the benefit of the Seongnam citizens.

“Is the act of the Seongnam mayor and public servants trying to save money a major crime?” Lee asked rhetorically.

“It was a legal and appropriate advertisement contract, which the prosecutors are trying to make fraudulent,” Lee said to the allegation that the sponsorship made by major businesses, including Doosan and Naver, for Seongnam city’s soccer club was a bribery in disguise.

Lee said he, too, like former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, is being falsely investigated on fabricated time.

He argued that the prosecutors have already made up their minds.

“Everyone already knows,” Lee said. “They have already set the indictment target and are matching the investigation accordingly.”

The DP leader said as the prosecutors have already determined the results, there is no use explaining or trying to convince them otherwise.

“Eventually the truth has to be fought for in court,” Lee said.

“The prosecutors who played servant to the government, today have become that very government,” Lee said. “Due to fabricated investigation arrest warrants, indictments are issued excessively. I will win this.”

This is his first time appearing at the prosecutors' office as a crime suspect.

Lee is being investigated over a corporate sponsorship of a Seongnam soccer club when he served as the city’s mayor. Prosecutors say that the 16-billion-won ($12.7 million) sponsorship from companies including Doosan and Naver was a quid pro quo for favors received.

In exchange for the sponsorship, the city government relaxed several development regulations as well as construction approvals.

The DP leader showed up Tuesday with the DP leadership including lawmakers Ko Min-jung and Kim Tae-nyeon.

Some 900 crowd control police units were dispatched as a massive crowd estimated to be more than 1,000 people, both supporters and those demanding the arrest of the DP leader, showed up for the summoning of Lee.

Lee is currently also being investigated by prosecutors on several other cases including development projects, including the Daejang-dong development scandal.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]