Second hearing of Lee Manhee's trial - News 1
Lee Man-hee's close aide involved in a dispute over the falsification of the DMZ application form.
2020.10.14
News 1, reporter Yoo Jae-kyu
The prosecution, "The application was in the name of 'World Mission Taekwondo Federation' and Shincheonji held the event."
The lawyer, "The event was hosted by the applicant."
A legal battle was held over whether some of the applications submitted by the Shincheonji Church of Jesus to the local government to proceed with events hold in the past were false.
The 11th Criminal Department of the Suwon District Court (Chief Judge Kim Mi-kyung) held a trial on the 14th for Jeong, who was indicted without physical detention on charges of obstructing the execution of official duty.
Jeong is a defendant indicted along with the chairman of Shincheonji Lee Man-hee, 89, and he is an aide close to Lee.
The hearing did not take place at the hearing of Lee, who was arrested and indicted on charges of obstructing the government's preventive activities for the new coronavirus (Corona 19). The court separated the hearing because Jeong attended without a lawyer and didn't inform the court.
Today's witnesses were Kim, a former manager at Cheorwon County Facility Management Office in Gangwon Province for a year from July 2017, and Jang, the head of the Worl Mission Taekwondo Federation and member of Shincheonji.
According to the prosecution, Jeong was indicted on charges of falsely filling out an application to a local government on August 9, 2017 at DMZ Peace and Culture Plaza in Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province, for organizing and conducting the "World Peace Declaration Memorial Ceremony."
The prosecution believes that although the unveiling ceremony was held on the 15th of the same month with the approval of the local government, the applicant (representative name) was the World Mission Taekwondo Federation but it was an event of Heavenly culture, World Peace and restoration of Light (HWPL), an organization related to Shincheonji.
This because the application for the rental would not be accepted in the name of Shincheonji.
Stressing that it is illegal to install private permanent facilities in Peace and Culture Plaza, the prosecution also judged that the monument had the mark of "HWPL CEO Lee Man-hee," but since there was not any specific inscription related to religious figures, the officials in Cheorwon County were deceived.
Prosecutors said, "The creation of a front group called the World Mission Taekwondo Federation to suit Shincheonji's purpose and deceive local governments to get approval for the venue rental, proves the charges against Jeong."
About this, the witness Kim said, "In that occasion, some churches sent a lot of complaints asking, 'What does a monument of Shincheonji, a heretic group, has to to with the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone)?' but Sincheonji wouldn't budge an inch, the officials (in Gangwon-do) had a very hard time" and added, " If they had known it was a front, they wouldn't have approved it."
The lawyer refuted the claim.
The lawyer said it was wrong to install the monument without permission in the DMZ, but stressed that it was not a false application because it was true that the event was held under the name of the applicant.
He also said that very few executives of the World Mission Taekwondo Federation are Shincheonji, not the majority.
To support this, Chang, who made the rental application together with Jeong on Aug. 9, 2017, said, "The unveiling ceremony was not a religious event. "If it was, I would have suggested something to Jeong because we had our status and position," he said. "The DMZ is a space to commemorate peace, and that event was also related to peace."
The lawyer also said, "It is logically the local government's fault sine they didn't check thoroughly. They wrote 'Unveiling ceremony of Declaration of World Peace Monument' as the purpose of using the space. So it is not interference with a government official in the execution of his duty."
Meanwhile, the monument was reportedly removed in August.
The court decided to hold Jeong's hearings separately from now on. However, if it is judged to be related to the chairman's case, it seems that the hearing will proceed flexibly, such as regrouping.
Original article (Korean): http://naver.me/IDEjhZnL
Disclaimer! I am neither a native Korean speaker nor a professional translator and all the English subtitles and translations are by no means official. They are just part of my personal research on SCJ that I want to share with you.
