An ex-prosecutor who led the investigation into bribery allegations surrounding former president Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday he treated the late president with respect, rebuking a Roh aide’s claim that he didn’t.
Roh killed himself during a prosecutorial probe in 2009 into suspicions that his associates and family took kickbacks from a Busan-based businessman named Park Yeon-cha.
As then chief of the central investigation unit of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, Lee In-gyu said he did his best to treat the ex-president with the respect due him when he met Roh for questioning.
Moon Jae-in, former aide to Roh and now chief of a foundation named after the ex-president, wrote in his recently published book that Lee was “awfully arrogant” when he met Roh.
“Lee In-gyu was awfully arrogant. He spoke in a polite tone but his attitude was full of contemptuousness and hubris,” Moon wrote.
Lee said he simply did what he had to.
“I was just doing my job as an investigator,” Lee was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.
“I tried to be as polite as possible and did not act in an unpleasant manner.”
Lee said he had tea with Roh for about 10 to 15 minutes before the interrogation and other people were there too, so they would know that he didn’t treat the former president in an inappropriate manner.
Moon, a lawyer, wrote in his book that other than Park Yeon-cha’s testimony, the prosecution had no evidence to prove the allegation that his money was used to buy homes and cars for Roh’s children.
Lee said that the prosecution had obtained “a sort of clue from a U.S. agency named FinCEN that suggested Roh’s daughter Jung-youn purchased a house in the U.S.
“The material did not confirm whether she bought a house or how much she paid for it, but we could use it as a clue in the investigation.”
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is one of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s anti-money laundering agencies.
The prosecution did not have any telephone records of Roh.
Moon recalled in his book that it was “immensely disrespectful” of the prosecution to have the former president and Park, the businessman who was indicted for tax evasion and bribery, sit together for cross-examination.
Lee said cross-examination was an obvious procedure as the two sides were making contradictory statements, adding that “everyone is equal before the law.”
Lee now works in a major law firm called Barun Law, which had defended Park in his trial in September 2009.
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)
