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Last month, before Deputy Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu was appointed as vice minister, it was belatedly known that he assaulted a taxi driver while drunk.

However, unlike the police's earlier reports, the specific crime weighted punishment law was not applied, and the case was concluded with a simple assault.



This is reporter Ahn Hee-jae.



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On the night of last month, a taxi driver reported a passenger to the police in an apartment complex in Seocho-dong, Seoul.



When he awoke a drunk passenger while stopping after arriving at his destination, he caught his own fat.



The person accused of being the perpetrator was Lee Yong-gu, the current vice minister of justice, who was then a lawyer.



The police officer who was dispatched to the scene reported that the taxi driver was violating the Certain Criminal Weighted Penalty Act for assaulting the taxi driver, and then sent the lawyer home.



Under the Special Act, assaulting a taxi driver can result in a sentence of up to five years in prison and punishment regardless of whether the victim is agreed or not.



Assault not only while driving, but also when stopped.



However, the police finally applied the charges of simple assault and closed the internal affairs without appointing this lawyer.



When it was pointed out that it was a mistake in the application of the law, the police heard it based on a precedent in the Constitutional Court.



It was explained that it was determined that the taxi was stopped, so it could not be seen as driving, and that the apartment complex was not subject to the Special Act unless there is a safety concern.



The taxi driver told reporters that the day after the accident, Vice Minister Lee personally visited and sincerely apologized and said that he did not want punishment as there was no damage.



I tried to get in touch with this vice minister, but I couldn't reach it.



A civic group accused the Vice Minister of violating the Special Price Act to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.



(Video coverage: Nam Nam Kim, video editing: Junhee Kim, CG: Junho Lee, Sooin Jo)