National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee holds national audit of prosecution office

On first day in office last month, acting chief said he would 'wait and see' probe results

'I expressed an extremely principled stance … no other intention'

Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jeong-hyeon, who also serves as deputy chief of the prosecution office, answers lawmakers' questions during a national audit of the prosecution office held by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Thursday. [Yonhap]
Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jeong-hyeon, who also serves as deputy chief of the prosecution office, answers lawmakers' questions during a national audit of the prosecution office held by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Acting Prosecutor General Lee Jeong-hyeon said Thursday that he has "never reviewed" the possibility of dropping criminal charges against President Lee Jae Myung, speaking at the first national audit of the prosecution office since it was reorganized from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

Lee appeared before the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee that morning and made the remarks in response to a question from People Power Party lawmaker Kwak Gyu-taek, who asked whether the acting chief intended to withdraw the indictments against the president.

Kwak raised the issue in connection with the activities of a fact-finding panel under the Ministry of Justice's Committee for Respecting Prosecutors' Human Rights and the Future of Prosecution, criticizing Lee for having previously commented on the matter.

Earlier, after being appointed deputy chief of what was then the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Lee told reporters on his first day at work on Sept. 23 that he would need to "wait and see the results" of the fact-finding panel's ongoing investigation before addressing questions about dropping the charges against President Lee. Opposition lawmakers seized on the remark, arguing it left open the possibility of withdrawing the indictments.

Kwak pressed Lee repeatedly, saying, "On your very first day, you said something to the effect of 'I'll wait and see what the fact-finding panel concludes.'" He demanded to know whether Lee planned to use the panel's findings — which Kwak called the work of an unlawful body — as grounds to drop the charges against the president.

Lee said his comments during the doorstep interview that day were meant only to convey a principled stance — that the fact-finding process was still under way and he would wait for its outcome.

He added that he could not possibly make conditional statements about hypothetical scenarios, whether before the Assembly or anywhere else. "That was an extremely principled expression of my position," Lee said. "I make it unequivocally clear that I have never reviewed the matter and that no other intention whatsoever was involved."


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