"Cabinet Attendance Pressuring to Drop Charges" ... "Never Mentioned"

[Anchor]

The controversy over the heads of the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the Public Prosecution Agency attending Cabinet meetings carried over into the parliamentary audit. The People Power Party claimed that the president was pressuring investigative agencies to demand the dropping of charges in his own cases, but Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jeong-hyeon drew the line, stating that he has never once mentioned the cases and will never do so in the future.

Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

Today (October 22), the parliamentary audit of the Public Prosecution Agency took place at the National Assembly.

Targeting Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jeong-hyeon, who serves as deputy chief prosecutor of the Public Prosecution Agency, People Power Party lawmakers argued that having the heads of investigative and prosecution agencies attend Cabinet meetings presided over by President Lee Jae-myung could exert pressure to drop charges in cases involving the president.

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party Lawmaker: Showing this kind of behavior, continually putting pressure on the heads of investigative agencies by using the Cabinet meetings, is in itself highly inappropriate.]

Acting Chief Lee stated that although he has attended Cabinet meetings multiple times, he has never mentioned specific cases even once and has no intention of doing so, adding that he would stake his position on upholding political neutrality.

Democratic Party lawmakers defended Lee.

[Kim Han-kyu / Democratic Party Lawmaker: Have you ever given instructions or consulted regarding a review of dropping charges?]

[Lee Jeong-hyeon / Acting Prosecutor General: I have never even uttered the first syllable of 'dropping charges.']

Lee singled out former President Yoon Suk Yeol and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon as individuals who had a negative impact on the prosecution organization, recounting remarks that former President Yoon had allegedly made to him while serving as Prosecutor General.

[Lee Jeong-hyeon / Acting Prosecutor General: (Prosecutor General Yoon made remarks to the effect that) for cases that are ambiguous and where defendants neither confess nor show remorse, we should indict them and make them stand trial for three to five years, inflicting material, economic, and psychological suffering.]

People Power Party lawmakers questioned Lee, arguing that he violated political neutrality when he apologized last April during a National Assembly special committee for parliamentary investigation, calling the investigation method in the Ssangbangwool illicit remittance to North Korea case "a very wrong investigation method."

[Kim Min-jeon / People Power Party Lawmaker: Would you have apologized if it were not a case involving the president? In my view, aren't you also acting as a politically motivated prosecutor, Acting Chief?]

In response, Lee countered that he was merely expressing a principled stance against fishing-expedition and public-shaming investigation methods.

(Video by Oh Young-choon and Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing by Yu Mi-ra)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.