"Bowing and Scraping Over Lee Hwa-young" vs. "Investigate Han Dong-hoon Data Leak"

[Anchor]

At the parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Justice today (October 8), the ruling and opposition parties clashed fiercely from the very beginning over the proceeding procedures. The People Power Party persistently pressed on requests for parole made by former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young, while the Democratic Party urged the Ministry of Justice to thoroughly investigate allegations that investigative records regarding independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon were leaked.

Son Hyeong-an reports.

[Reporter]

At the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's audit of the Ministry of Justice.

A clash continued for more than 40 minutes following protests that Chair Seo Young-kyo, a member of the Democratic Party, spoke for too long and unfairly restricted opposition lawmakers' speaking rights during the parliamentary audit of the Supreme Court on October 6.

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker: "We ordered 18 portions of meat. Shouldn't each person eat one portion? One person ate six portions!"]

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "Aren't you resorting to personal attacks?"]

In the main questioning session that began late, the opposition targeted the Justice Ministry's Prosecution Future Committee launched last June, asking whether investigations into abuses of prosecutorial power were essentially a preliminary move to drop indictments in cases related to President Lee Jae-myung.

[Kim Min-jeon / People Power Party Lawmaker: "Saying they will examine whether to maintain indictments for cases currently on trial means they intend to interfere in ongoing trials."]

[Lee Jin-soo / Vice Minister of Justice: "Former Minister Jeong Seong-ho also made it clear that the Ministry of Justice has no intention of ordering the dismissal of charges through specific case directives."]

The People Power Party also went on the offensive regarding requests for parole submitted to Cheong Wa Dae by the side of former Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young, whose prison sentence was finalized in the North Korea remittance case, questioning whether ruling party lawmakers were repeatedly visiting him out of fear that he might speak out and make statements disadvantageous to President Lee.

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party Lawmaker: "Lawmakers from the Democratic Party are practically bowing and scraping whenever Lee Hwa-young comes up, and they are frequently visiting him."]

The Democratic Party countered that it was "clearly a fabricated indictment" by the prosecution.

[Seo Young-kyo / Chair of Legislation and Judiciary Committee (Democratic Party Lawmaker): "Regarding Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young's case, the special parliamentary investigation committee already revealed that it was a fabricated investigation and a fabricated indictment."]

Vice Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo answered that no parole request had been received and that the requirements were not met.

The Democratic Party focused its fire on allegations of investigative records being leaked regarding independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, repeatedly calling for a compulsory investigation.

[Park Ji-won / Democratic Party Lawmaker: "It has been over a month. Are you still just checking?"]

[Lee Jin-soo / Vice Minister of Justice: "I understand that the specific individual has not yet been identified."]

Vice Minister Lee answered that they would confirm the facts and the truth through the prosecution service.

(Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.