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| Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung speaks to the press in front of his office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, after the prosecution announced it had indicted him for alleged violations of the Election Law during the local election campaign in June, and abuse of power. /Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
The prosecution indicted Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, Tuesday, on two charges of violating the Election Law, and one on abuse of power in committing his estranged brother to a psychiatric hospital.
However, prosecutors didn't indict Lee's wife, Kim Hye-gyeong, on allegations she used a "controversial" Twitter account to illegally campaign for her husband due to a lack of evidence.
The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office indicted Lee without detention two days before the statute of limitations on the alleged Election Law violations is reached.
The office said the governor abused his power in forcibly hospitalizing his older brother in 2012 when he was Seongnam mayor. Lee is suspected of ordering local government civil servants to get his brother committed.
While it is mandatory for a psychiatrist to interview an alleged mentally disturbed person prior to a diagnosis and committal, witnesses, including the public officials, said Lee managed to bypass this process, according to the prosecution.
Regarding the Election Law violations, Lee is accused of spreading false information during a local campaign in June. The governor said he was wrongly accused of falsely representing himself as a prosecutor in 2001, where in fact he was actually fined 1.5 million won after being found guilty of doing this.
The governor also violated the law by announcing unconfirmed profit details of a development project in Daejang-dong in Gyeonggi Province to win votes.
The prosecution did not indict him over his alleged extramarital affair with actress Kim Boo-sun, and ties with organized crime, citing a lack of evidence.
If Lee is found guilty of violating the Election Law or abuse of power and is fined 1 million won or given a prison term of over one year, he will be removed from the governorship immediately. In addition, he will not be able to run for public office for five years.
After the indictment was announcement, Lee expressed regret over the prosecution move, but said he was not surprised and therefore not embarrassed.
"I am glad that allegations including my alleged extramarital affairs have been put to rest through the investigation," Lee told the press at his office in Suwon. "I will leave it to the court to find out the truth now and only focus on matters related to governing the province."
Lee also denied the rumor that he was leaving the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), saying, "I'm still a proud member of the party and will do my best not to harm it."
With regards to Kim, his wife, the prosecution said it could not find enough evidence that she owned the Twitter account with the ID "Hyegyeonggung Ms. Kim" through which illegal campaigning for Lee was committed.
In December 2016 when he was competing against Moon Jae-in in the party primary for the presidential election, postings on the account falsely claimed Moon's son landed a public agency job in 2006 thanks to his father's influence. In April when Lee was competing with Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol of the DPK in the party primary for the governorship, the account claimed Jeon cooperated with an opposition party to attack Lee.
