Lee Man-hee denied all charges of "Corona prevention obstruction" - Yonhap
The chairman of Shincheonji Lee Man-hee denied all charges of "Corona prevention obstruction"
Yonhap News 2020-09-17, Reporter Kang Young-hoon
The lawyer clarifies the position on the second pretrial session. Lee Man-hee who apologized to the citizens is absent.
Lee Man-hee (89), the chairman of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, who was indicted on charges of obstructing the government's prevention activities for the Coronavirus infection, denied all charges filed by the prosecution.
At the second pretrial session for the case, which was held on the 17th at the hearing of the Suwon District Court's Criminal Department 11 (Senior Judge Kim Mi-kyung), Lee's side submitted the lawyer's opinion and said, "We have settled our position with the intention of denying all the charges."
"The defendant insists that a legal review is needed on whether the list of believers in Shincheonji and the venues of the rallies fall within the scope of the prevention authorities' epidemiological investigation," the court said. "And that it is not true that there was an arbitrary alteration of the list of believers."
He added, “Regarding the embezzlement, the defendant said that he decided to take the money to complete the building and hand over the ownership to Shincheonji after completing the building, and said that he had completed the return of the part he was responsible for."
The court decided to refer to the lawyer's position in future proceedings.
Lee apologized to the citizens for causing health concerns to the public during the first pretrial session held behind closed doors on the 3rd. He did not appear in court on the second session he was allowed to attend. The trial preparation is not mandatory for the defendant to attend.
The court initially planned to finish the trial preparation within this session, but decided to hold one more on the 28th as requested by the lawyer.
In February, when the Corona 19 was spreading around Shincheonji, Lee was indicted on charges of colluding with Shincheonji executives to manipulate the list of believers and the meeting venues required by the prevention authorities (violation of the infection prevention law and obstruction of officials' duty).
He is also suspected of embezzling 5.6 billion won (violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes) in the process of building the Peace Palace, a training center of Shincheonji, and holding religious events at public facilities without the approval of local governments from 2015 to last year.
Original article https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200917088200061?input=1195m
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