Na denies allegations involving husband

By Lee Hyo-sik

Na Kyung-won, the defeated Seoul mayoral election candidate from the ruling Saenuri Party, denied an accusation by a political podcast that her husband pressured a prosecutor to indict a netizen critical of her.

Na said she will not surrender to a “biased media’s political scheme” to defame her.

Her husband Kim Jae-ho, a sitting judge, had been accused by the political podcast ``Naneun Ggomsuda,’’ or ``I’m a petty trickster,’’ of having asked a female prosecutor to indict a netizen critical of his wife last October.

“My husband has never sought any favor involving the indictment. The allegations against him husband are groundless,” she said at a press conference.

Her denial came two days after the podcast claimed that Kim, a senior judge at the Seoul Eastern District Court, asked Park Eun-jung, a prosecutor at the Bucheon Prosecutors’ Office, in 2005 to indict a man surnamed Kim who posted a series of messages critical of Na in cyberspace. The postings were to criticize Na’s presence in an event organized by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

The podcast, popular with those in 20s and 30s, is dedicated to ridiculing President Lee Myung-bak and conservative groups.

On the Feb. 28 segment, SisaIN reporter Choo Chin-woo, one of Naneun Ggomsuda co-hosts, said Park told fellow prosecutors that Kim had solicited her to indict the Internet user for defaming his wife.

“The female prosecutor decided to come clean recently, telling colleagues that the judge pressured her to bring charges against the individual critical of former ruling party lawmaker Na,’’ Choo said in the latest edition of the podcast.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election last year, Choo said Kim, who worked at the Seoul Western District Court in 2005, asked Park, a prosecutor at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office at the same time, to indict the netizen. ``Kim told Park if she indicted the man, the court would take care of the rest,’’ Choo claimed.

He also said the man was indicted and fined 700 million won by initial and appeals courts, adding the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in just seven months.

``The courts closed the case with lightening speed. Presiding judges at both the first and second trials were all Kim’s colleagues, handing out a verdict unfavorable to the netizen critical of Na,’’ he argued.

The former ruling party lawmaker filed a complaint with the police against Choo on charges of spreading false rumors. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has been handling the case.

In light of the new accusation, investigators plan to summon the female prosecutor for questioning over whether she was indeed solicited to bring charges at Kim’s request.

Park has remained silent and refuses to comment on whether she actually blew the whistle. The Bucheon Prosecutors’ Office has declined from issuing a statement.

Kim has remained tight-lipped about the accusation.

The Supreme Court only said it was undesirable to comment on the matter as they were only “noisy” allegations raised by Naneun Ggomsuda.