[Anchor]

The parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Justice today (October 8) saw fierce clashes between the ruling and opposition parties from the very start over procedural proceedings. The People Power Party aggressively probed parole requests made on behalf of former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young, while the Democratic Party urged the Ministry of Justice to thoroughly investigate allegations of investigative data leaks involving independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon.

Son Hyeong-an reports.

[Reporter]

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

Clashes continued for over 40 minutes following protests that Democratic Party Committee Chairperson Seo Young-kyo's remarks were excessively lengthy and unfairly restricted opposition lawmakers' speaking rights during the Supreme Court audit on October 6.

[Kwak Kyu-taek / People Power Party lawmaker: "We ordered 18 servings of meat. Shouldn't each person eat one serving? One person ended up eating six servings!"]

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

During the main question-and-answer session that got underway belatedly, the opposition targeted the Ministry of Justice's Prosecution Future Committee, launched last June, demanding to know whether its review of abuses of prosecutorial power is effectively laying the groundwork to drop indictments in cases related to President Lee Jae-myung.

[Kim Min-jeon / People Power Party lawmaker: "If you say you are going to examine whether to maintain indictments in cases where trials are currently ongoing, does that not mean you intend to interfere in active trials?"]

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

Regarding the fact that the side of former Gyeonggi Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young, whose prison sentence was finalized in the North Korea remittance case, requested parole from the presidential office, the People Power Party launched an offensive, asking whether ruling party lawmakers were repeatedly visiting him out of concern that he might speak out and give testimony unfavorable to President Lee,

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party lawmaker: "In the Democratic Party, lawmakers almost bow and scrape whenever it comes to Lee Hwa-young, and they are constantly going to visit him."]

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

[Seo Young-kyo / Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chairperson (Democratic Party lawmaker): "Regarding Vice Governor Lee's case, the special parliamentary investigation committee has already made clear that it was a fabricated investigation and a fabricated indictment."]

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

The Democratic Party focused its firepower on the alleged leak of investigative records involving 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 merely checking?"]

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

Vice Minister Lee replied that the facts and truth would be verified through the Indictment Office.

Video by Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek