By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors filed a libel suit against a weekly journal for reporting that they attempted to cajole and threaten a financial scammer into making statements in favor of then presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak in December during their investigation into allegations of stock rigging by Lee’s former business partner.
The prosecutors are seeking 600 million won in damages from the journal SisaIN, according to Kim Jin-tae, the lawyer representing the 10 prosecutors, Wednesday.
They are arguing that the journal reported the stock rigger Kim Kyung-joon’s claims without confirmation and thus defamed them.
The prosecutors are seeking 100 million won each for the two whose names were reported, and 50 million won each for the eight other members in the prosecution team, the lawyer said.
In early December prosecutors cleared Lee of all allegations after investigating Kim’s stock price manipulation and Lee’s alleged involvement in the financial scam.
On Dec. 4, the day before the announcement of the result, the journal reported that the prosecutors offered a ``plea bargain,’’ to Kim saying they would push for a jail term of three years if he made statements in favor of Lee. The journal published Kim’s handwritten memo that was secretly handed over to his mother-in-law. The memo said that ``South Korean prosecutors are scared of Lee Myung-bak.’’
The prosecutors strongly denied the report, saying that Kim first tried plea bargaining, which is not acknowledged in Korea, and that the whole questioning process was recorded or videotaped.
``They decided to file the suit because the journal reported Kim’s false claim as if it was the truth although they conducted the probe in a lawful way and respected his rights during the investigation,’’ the lawyer said.
They also plan to file additional suits against Kim, Kim’s lawyer, and some politicians for the same reason after the independent counsel finishes its inquiry into the case.