Lee Hwa-young pushes back on reports of anger at President Lee, parole demands

Handwritten statement from Suwon Detention Center: 'My lawyer was expressing his own anguish'

Former Gyeonggi Province deputy governor repeats claim that prosecutors fabricated North Korea funds case

Lee Hwa-young, former Gyeonggi Province deputy governor for peace affairs [Yonhap file photo]

Lee Hwa-young, the former Gyeonggi Province deputy governor for peace affairs, moved to quell a controversy within a day of its eruption, saying media reports portraying him as angry at President Lee Jae Myung and demanding parole did not reflect his true intentions.

Kim Hyun-chul, the lawyer who represented Lee Hwa-young in his citizen-jury trial, released Thursday a two-page handwritten statement that Lee wrote at Suwon Detention Center. In the statement, titled "Prosecution reform must lead to court reform," Lee addressed remarks that attorney Kim Gwang-min had made to the media on Wednesday, saying his lawyer appeared to have "expressed his own anguish at watching me endure a long prison term." Lee drew a clear distinction between his own views and those remarks.

"There are parts that differ from my true intentions, and I want to correct them," he wrote, adding that he sympathized with "the anguish of the president, who must be suffering just as I am under fabricated false charges." The controversy had been set off on Wednesday when Kim Gwang-min said in an interview and on social media that Lee Hwa-young was "very angry" at President Lee and that he had conveyed a request for parole to the president's side, which had not acted on it.

In the handwritten statement, Lee Hwa-young repeated his longstanding claim that the SBW North Korea funds transfer case was fabricated by prosecutors, directing his criticism at both prosecutors and the courts. "I ask the public to help the special prosecutor swiftly punish the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigators who fabricated the lies," he wrote. "Prosecutors fabricated the charges of North Korea funds transfers and bribery, and the court completed the fabrication by rejecting evidence of innocence."

The handwritten statement that Lee Hwa-young, former Gyeonggi Province deputy governor for peace affairs, wrote at Suwon Detention Center on Thursday. [Provided by attorney Kim Hyun-chul. Redistribution and database storage prohibited]

Lee then criticized the ruling for failing to state in the written judgment the reasons for rejecting evidence, saying he had been convicted "solely on the testimony of witnesses." He added that "the current Code of Criminal Procedure enables judges to act arbitrarily," and called on the public not to let his sacrifice go to waste, asking that he be used "as kindling to dismantle the power of the courts." Lee is serving a confirmed Supreme Court sentence of seven years and eight months on charges of accepting bribes from SBW Group and conspiring in the transfer of funds to North Korea. In June, he received an additional four-month sentence through a citizen-jury trial on perjury charges related to claims of being plied with salmon and drinks at a party.

kty@heraldcorp.com