Jeong I-han, the former Reform Party candidate for Busan mayor who faces allegations of staging a fake attack during the June 3 local elections, enters a courtroom at the Busan District Court on July 8 for a pre-arrest warrant hearing. [Yonhap]
Jeong I-han, the former Reform Party candidate for Busan mayor who faces allegations of staging a fake attack during the June 3 local elections, enters a courtroom at the Busan District Court on July 8 for a pre-arrest warrant hearing. [Yonhap]

The defense team for Jeong I-han, the former Reform Party candidate for Busan mayor who is on trial for allegedly staging a fake attack during the June 3 local elections, argued Tuesday that the incident stemmed from a desire to resolve a conflict with his father, and requested that his mother be called as a witness.

At the hearing before the sixth criminal division of the Busan District Court, presided over by Judge Im Seong-cheol, Jeong's defense counsel filed a request to call three witnesses: his mother, his campaign manager at the time, and the head of his election strategy committee.

The defense had previously acknowledged in court that Jeong staged the fake attack, but maintained that the motive was not to boost his name recognition or approval rating during the election, but rather to improve his strained relationship with his father.

Explaining the request to call Jeong's mother, defense counsel said she "was close to the situation and well aware of the conflict between the defendant and his father," adding that "there is no one better suited to explain the motive behind the incident."

The presiding judge pushed back, asking whether the defense was claiming that Jeong acted solely to resolve the family conflict with no intention whatsoever of influencing the election, and whether he had never considered that his actions could affect the outcome.

Defense counsel responded that while such a thought may have crossed Jeong's mind at some point as the incident escalated, "that was not how it started." Counsel added that Jeong's approval rating had been too low to matter in terms of winning, and that he had needed his father's wholehearted support — support that had broken down at some point.

Counsel further said there had been "a bit of that kind of thing since childhood" in Jeong's relationship with his father, explaining that "everyone in the family was a doctor and ran a clinic, but Jeong I-han alone did not become a doctor, and that put him slightly at odds with his father's strict expectations."

Jeong's father, clinic director Jeong Geun, his mother and his older sister are all ophthalmologists, and his wife is an obstetrician-gynecologist. The defense's remarks suggest that Jeong's failure to follow the family into medicine was at the root of his conflict with his father.

The court said it would take additional time to consider whether to accept the three witnesses.

The hearing also saw prosecutors and the defense exchange arguments over the admissibility of suspect interrogation records and investigative reports compiled during the investigation.

Prosecutors argued that the interrogation records should be admitted as evidence, on the grounds that co-defendant Yun's act of making false statements to investigators was itself directly related to the charge of obstructing official duties through deception.

The court said it would review the prosecution's written opinion before ruling on the admissibility of the evidence. The next hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Nov. 17.


bbo@heraldcorp.com