▲ Attorney Seol Ju-wan
In the jury trial of former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young on charges of perjury regarding a "drinking party in the prosecutor's office," attorney Seol Ju-wan, Lee's former legal counsel, appeared as a witness for the prosecution and completely denied the allegations of a drinking party.
In response, Lee's defense raised the possibility that Seol might not have properly witnessed the situation at the time, citing access records showing that Seol moved back and forth between the 13th and 15th floors of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office multiple times.
During the seventh hearing of the trial, which lasted until around 11 p.m. on June 16 under Criminal Division 11 of the Suwon District Court (presided over by Senior Judge Song Byeong-hun), attorney Seol Ju-wan, a former vice chair of the Democratic Party of Korea's legal committee who defended Lee at the time, appeared as a prosecution witness.
Seol testified regarding the situation on May 17, 2023, when the so-called "salmon and drinking party" is suspected to have taken place, saying, "I have never once witnessed anyone eating food or smelling of alcohol in Prosecutor's Office Room 1313 or the video recording room."
Regarding his movements that evening, he asserted, "I left the building around 6:11 p.m. but re-entered around 7:05 p.m. after receiving a call from an investigator saying there would be additional questioning." He added, "Given the nature of the narrow investigation room with poor ventilation, there is no way I wouldn't have noticed if a drinking party had occurred or if there was a smell of food like salmon, and since it would have been highly unusual, I would have definitely remembered it."
On the other hand, Lee's defense strongly refuted Seol's claim by presenting second-by-second building access tag records.
Lee's attorney pointed out, "After re-entering around 7:05 p.m., Seol busily moved between the 13th and 15th floors at intervals of 1 to 3 minutes, and he only stayed in Room 1313 for about an hour after 7:35 p.m." The attorney added, "There is a one-hour gap from the time Ssangbangwool paid for the soju (6:34 p.m.), so how can you conclude that the salmon and drinking party was physically impossible?"
Earlier in the trial that day, three key figures from Ssangbangwool, including former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Seong-tae, former Vice Chairman Bang Yong-cheol, and former Director Park Sang-ung, also appeared as prosecution witnesses and unanimously denied the allegations.
Former Director Park Sang-ung directly refuted the suspicion raised by the defense, based on a convenience store receipt for soju, that soju had been smuggled in under the guise of water.
When the defense pressed him with records showing the purchase of four bottles of soju and three bottles of mineral water starting at 6:34 p.m. on May 17, 2023, suggesting that the soju had been transferred into the water bottles to be brought in, Park first explained that he did not purchase the alcohol himself, but rather his driver did.
He went on to dismiss the claim, saying, "It is true that I instructed my driver to buy soju because I was stressed that the investigation might run late," but added, "I only drank that soju in the car on my way home after the investigation, and the claim that it was brought into the prosecutor's office is absurd."
Former Vice Chairman Bang Yong-cheol also drew the line at the so-called "statement seminar" allegations, where suspects allegedly gathered to coordinate their stories.
Bang testified, "Because we were being investigated on a wide range of cases in the presence of prosecutors, we merely engaged in conversations to jog each other's memories," adding, "There was never a situation where suspects were left alone without a prosecutor or investigator to be coaxed or to conspire."
Former Chairman Kim Seong-tae clashed head-on with Lee's side, exchanging shouts, while completely denying the drinking party allegations.
Regarding a portion of a transcript from a past detention center visit with an acquaintance where he mentioned "needing at least a glass of soju" and "something like Seoksu (mineral water)," Kim explained, "I was just frustrated because Lee Hwa-young's statements kept changing, so I lamented, 'Drink some soju and get it off your chest.' It was not a code to order smuggling."
When the defense attorney, citing another transcript, pressed him on whether he had managed attorneys through associates to maintain Lee's confession, Kim became enraged and shouted at Lee, "I lost 10 billion won and all of our people got arrested, so why are you doing this to me? I paid for all the card spending, so why are you blaming others?"
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.