DP chief Lee indicted for aiding and abetting perjury

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung appears at a court in Seocho-dong to attend a trial on Oct. 6. [YONHAP]

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was indicted by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday on aiding and abetting perjury.

The DP chief is accused of soliciting a pivotal witness to make a false statement during a court trial in 2018, where he was indicted on charges of violating the public election law.

During a televised debate, Lee, who was running for Gyeonggi governor office in 2018, denied accusations that he had been convicted for falsely posing as a prosecutor.

In 2003, Lee, along with Choi Cheol-ho, a producer of the broadcasting station KBS, was fined by a court for impersonating a prosecutor when calling then-Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang.

According to the prosecution, between Dec. 22 and 24, 2018, Lee contacted the late mayor’s secretary, Kim Jin-seong, and asked him to falsely state that KBS and the mayor had collaborated to frame Lee in exchange for dropping legal actions against the TV producer.

In February 2019, that court acquitted Lee of violating the election law, partly based on Kim's false testimony.

If Lee had been convicted of making false statements during his mayoral run and even slapped with a fine of 1 million won, the DP chief might have stepped down as mayor.

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, when seeking the National Assembly’s approval for an arrest warrant against the DP chief, said that the prosecution had recorded evidence of Lee personally asking the court witness to purger himself.

Although the court denied Lee’s arrest warrant on Sept. 27, Judge Yoo Chang-hoon said Lee had coerced a witness to make false statements.

The prosecution’s decision to indict the DP leader without detention comes just four days after Lee was indicted on corruption charges regarding the Baekhyeon-dong development project in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, when he was mayor.

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