By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's Grand National Party (GNP) hailed a special prosecutor's clearance of his corruption allegations while all the other parties strongly criticized the decision, Thursday.
Rep. Woo Sang-ho, spokesman of the United Democratic Party, said, ``The special prosecutor failed to uncover the truth, giving just an excuse for President-elect Lee. We can't accept the result of the probe.''
Kang Hyung-gu, vice spokesperson of the progressive Democratic Labor Party also said, ``As usual, the prosecutor didn't investigate thoroughly enough because the man under examination is the President-elect.''
Lee Hae-yon, spokeswoman of the Liberty Forward Party said, ``A man of power incapacitated even the special probe. Justice and rule of law has be lost.''
Meanwhile, Kang Jae-sup, chairman of the GNP, said the result indicates the victory of the truth and urged those who sought the investigation to apologize to the nation. Kang said voters will keep this in mind in the upcoming general elections slated for April 9.
Rep. Na Kyung-won, spokeswoman of the GNP, said that her party will seek to introduce laws and regulations so that investigations based on political motivation won't happen again.
However, most civic groups strongly criticized the conclusion of the probe.
Members of the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea staged a protest in front of the prosecutor's office in Yeosam-dong, Seoul, saying that the prosecutor betrayed the nation with the dereliction of his duty.
``People will not stop being suspicious of Lee and the prosecutors as a whole,'' they said in a statement.
The independent probe, legislated by liberals affiliated with outgoing President Roh Moo-hyun, kicked off after Lee's landslide election victory in December.
Lee had been cleared of the charges in a preliminary probe, but the opponents said the investigation was biased.
But few expected the special prosecutor to override the previous findings to declare Lee guilty. A few days before the prosecutor announced the results, reports had already came out that Lee would be cleared of his allegations.
The special prosecutor came to the same conclusions as the earlier investigators, which indicted Lee's former business partner, Kim Kyung-joon, for stock price manipulation, embezzlement of 38 billion won and forgery.