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| Jae-Yong Lee, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics 201.1.18/News1 © News1 Reporter Park Ji-hye |
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Prosecution Citizen’s Committee held a deputy deliberation committee on the 11th and decided to accept the request for a convocation of the Prosecutors’ Investigation Review Committee (dep.
The decision of the Citizens’ Committee at the Prosecutors’ Office can be interpreted as being judged to have considerable validity in the arguments made by Vice Chairman Lee. In other words, the acceptance of the request by the Prosecutors’ Citizens’ Committee to convene the Depth Committee can be seen as not being accepted by the prosecution investigation team.
Vice-Chairman Lee has consistently denied charges, saying,’Illegal medication is not true’.
The Prosecutors’ Investigation Deliberation Committee is a system that deliberates the investigation process of cases that raise public suspicion or draws attention to society, and evaluates the legality of investigation results. After evaluation, the Commission recommends to the prosecution whether to continue the investigation, whether to prosecute, and whether to request an arrest warrant.
On this day, the lawyers of the Vice Presidency said, “I once again clearly confirm that there was no illegal administration of Propofol other than legal treatment in the medical procedure.”
Earlier, in January last year, the National Rights Commission of Korea asked the prosecution for an investigation after receiving a report that Vice-Chairman Lee had routinely administered Propofol in a plastic surgery clinic. The prosecution has conducted an investigation for more than a year, but has not yet secured clear evidence and is evaluated as having failed to prove illegal.
If the Prosecutors’ Citizen’s Committee did not accept Lee’s request for convocation, it could be interpreted as actually acknowledging the need for an investigation. It can also be seen as.
It is believed that the legal profession should be wary of cases where it may be difficult to make a rational judgment when an investigation is conducted with prosecution in mind from the beginning, and there is a’confirmation bias’ within the investigation team, and when contrary evidence comes out. This is because there is a risk that it may lead to abuse of authority or violation of human rights.
It can be interpreted that the Prosecution Citizen’s Committee’s acceptance of Lee’s request in this case admitted that it was necessary to go through an objective judgment procedure by external experts in consideration of these concerns.
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| Samsung Electronics Seocho office building in Seocho-gu, Seoul. 2021.1.21/News1 © News1 Reporter Seongcheol Lee |
Vice-Chairman Lee repeatedly insisted that there was no illegal medication other than legal treatment in the course of medical procedures, and no illegal investigations were confirmed by the prosecution or police investigation. Moreover, a man in his twenties who reported a related suspicion to the media was arrested on charges of blackmail while demanding a large sum of money against Vice-Chairman Lee, and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison at both the first and second trials.
In addition, the suspicion of taking Propofol by Hotel Shilla President Lee Bu-jin, reported by the same media, has also been concluded with no charges by the police.
According to the decision of the Prosecutors’ Citizens Committee, the Prosecutors’ Commission will review the claims of the investigative authorities and Vice Chairman Lee, and then decide whether to continue the investigation or prosecute the prosecution.
This is the second time that Vice Chairman Lee has requested a decision on the depth level. In connection with last year’s’Cheil Industries-Samsung C&T merger and Samsung Biologics alleged accounting corruption’, the Prosecutors’ Office recommended the prosecution to stop prosecuting and halting investigations and non-prosecution against Vice Chairman Lee and others.
In particular, 10 out of 13 judges overwhelmingly accepted Lee’s claim, but the prosecution ignored it and forced the prosecution.
A business official said, “The decision of the Prosecutors’ Citizens Committee can be seen as putting a brake on an unreasonable investigation.” Given that, it would be burdensome for the prosecution to reject the decision twice.”