[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Prosecutors have issued personnel measures and excluded Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, from the investigation of Lee Jung-sup, the second deputy chief prosecutor at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, who has raised suspicions of irregularities and is seeking impeachment. It also launched a forced investigation.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 20th appointed deputy prosecutor Lee as acting prosecutor of the Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office. Deputy prosecutor Lee moved to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office in September this year and has been in charge of investigating Lee's alleged remittance of Ssangbangwool Group to North Korea. Due to personnel transfer, Kang Sung-yong, the first deputy prosecutor, will take charge of Lee's investigation for the time being.

Suspicions of corruption by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee were first raised during a parliamentary audit of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee last month. At that time, Rep. Kim Eui-gyeom of the Democratic Party of Korea claimed that the deputy chief prosecutor Lee received family gathering entertainment from the vice chairman of the chaebol group he was investigating at the Elysian Gangchon Resort in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in December 2020. At the request of his brother-in-law, who runs the golf course, he also raised suspicions that he checked criminal records of golf course employees instead.

The Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 18th of last month against the deputy prosecutor Lee on charges of violating the anti-graft law. On the 10th of this month, he filed an additional complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department of High-Ranking Officials on the same charges. Apart from the charges, the Democratic Party proposed an impeachment motion against the deputy prosecutor Lee on the 9th of this month as its party platform and reported it to the plenary session.

The Criminal Affairs Department 1 (Senior Prosecutor Kim Seung-ho) at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office raided the Elysian Gangchon Resort and Yongin CC Golf Course run by Lee's brother-in-law in connection with Lee's alleged irregularities. On the 3rd, Kim's aide and two secretaries were called in as accusers to investigate. A prosecution official said, "We will conduct investigation and inspection on a strict basis (for the deputy prosecutor Lee)."

 

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