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DP chief fails to appear as witness in Daejang-dong developers' trial

Published: 21 Mar. 2025, 14:02

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung attends a party leadership meating at the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 12. [YONHAP]

Liberal Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung failed to appear for the trial of private developers involved in the Daejang-dong scandal despite being summoned as a witness on Friday.

With Lee's nonattendance at trial at the Seoul Central District Court, the hearing ended in just six minutes.

Previously, the court had granted the prosecution's request to summon Lee as a witness for questioning that day. However, on March 14, Lee’s legal team submitted a notice of nonattendance, citing his parliamentary duties and another ongoing trial.

The Daejang-dong scandal is related to one of the five court proceedings involving Lee.

The private developers in the Daejang-dong case have been indicted on charges of causing 489.5 billion won ($333.2 million) in losses for Seongnam Development Corporation during the project, which was carried out while Lee served as mayor of Seongnam.

Lee was separately indicted in March of 2023 on charges of approving a project structure that favored these developers during his tenure as mayor, thereby inflicting losses on the corporation.

“It appears that the witness did not attend as indicated in the nonattendance notice,” said the court. “We will not impose a fine today, but if he fails to appear again next Monday, we will consider issuing a fine.”

“There are summonses scheduled through the 31st, so we will explore ways to ensure attendance for each date,” said the court. “The submitted nonattendance notice includes vague explanations and does not cite overlapping schedules or specific reasons.

“We will wait to see if additional circumstances arise and review the matter again.”

After discussing the cross-examination schedule, the court settled on six total dates for Lee’s witness testimony and sent summonses for Apr. 7 and 17.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [[email protected]]