Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon and Cho Kuk, former leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party. [Yonhap]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon and Cho Kuk, former leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party. [Yonhap]

A political firestorm erupted Saturday after former Democratic Party lawmaker Noh Woong-rae was acquitted on appeal of charges of receiving illegal political funds, with rival parties trading sharp accusations over the case. Cho Kuk, head of the Rebuilding Korea Party's policy research institute, invoked his own criminal conviction to raise the issue of illegally obtained evidence — prompting independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon to fire back: "What exactly do you have to feel aggrieved about?"

The Democratic Party focused its criticism on remarks Han made in December 2022 at the National Assembly, when he was serving as justice minister under the Yoon Suk Yeol government. Explaining the need for an arrest warrant motion against Noh, Han had said a recording captured even "the rustling sound of a cash envelope."

Democratic Party spokesperson Shin Hyeon-yeong said in a written briefing that it had taken "a full three years and nine months to correct the fabricated indictment and fabricated investigation by Han's politically weaponized prosecution, which abused state power to turn an innocent person into a criminal," and demanded that Han apologize.

Cho also weighed in, writing on Facebook that Han was engaging in "anti-constitutional sophistry" and remained "a prosecution loyalist," adding that "the law prohibits prosecutors from collecting evidence illegally."

Cho went further, directly referencing his own case. "In my case, I argued strenuously that illegally obtained evidence had been submitted, but the judiciary under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration completely ignored it," he wrote. "Regardless of legal principle, Cho Kuk had become someone to be destroyed or discarded, and so my case ended in a guilty verdict." He added that "the exclusionary rule on illegally obtained evidence must be upheld and enforced more firmly than ever."

Han rebuffed the criticism immediately. Writing on Facebook about the Noh case, he said a recording of a conversation between a broker's wife and Noh — played in court — contained far more than the mere rustling of a cash envelope: "It plainly captured a conversation that took place after the money had been received."

"If you're going to keep insisting you did nothing wrong and have been wronged, let's all sit down together in the National Assembly and listen to that recording," he said.

Han also turned his sights on Cho. "It seems former lawmaker Cho Kuk wants in on the tiki-taka buildup to get Lee Jae Myung's indictment dropped," he wrote. "Now even Cho is jumping in to claim he's been wronged."

Han went on to say: "Criminals who received final guilty verdicts from the Supreme Court — Cho Kuk, Kim Min-seok and others — have no shame, throwing around words like 'prosecution loyalist' and 'fabricated indictment' and chiming in one by one. What do you have to feel aggrieved about? Did former lawmaker Cho not use forged documents? Did he not commit admissions fraud? Did he not cover up an internal investigation?"

The People Power Party also joined the offensive, arguing that Noh's acquittal did not mean the alleged payment never took place.

Jang Dong-hyeok, the PPP's floor leader and a former judge, said: "This is not a ruling that says the money was never received. It simply means the court did not accept the illegally obtained evidence. And yet President Lee Jae Myung offered his 'congratulations' and asked 'how aggrieved he must have felt.' Is corruption on your own side 'good corruption'?"

PPP chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon also said the acquittal "is not a ruling that confirmed the substantive truth that Noh did not receive money," adding that "the exclusion of evidence on admissibility grounds and the claim that the prosecution's investigation was fabricated are entirely separate matters."


sjy@heraldcorp.com