The court granted bail one day before the expiration of the arrest period for former Channel A reporter Dong-jae Lee, who was accused of attempting to coerce the reporter.
According to the legal profession, Judge Park Jin-hwan, who was the sole criminal officer of the Seoul Central District Court, decided on bail today (3rd) after accepting the request from the former reporter.
Accordingly, former reporter Lee is expected to be released from the Seoul detention center sometime today.
It has been 201 days since he was arrested on July 17 last year.
The former reporter was prosecuted in August of last year and was scheduled to be released tomorrow after the period of arrest expires.
The defendant's period of detention is up to 6 months per trial.
In October of last year, the court filed the former reporter's bail claim and finalized its interrogation, but after several months of delaying the decision, the court accepted the claim shortly before the expiry of the arrest period.
This former reporter sent five letters to former Value Invest Korea (VIK) CEO Lee Chul (56, incarcerated), who was the major shareholder of Shillazen, and was handed over to trial on charges of intimidation.
In a letter, former reporter Lee mentioned that the former representative's family could be the subject of investigation, and was known to have urged him to "report the charges of corruption by the chairman of Roh Moo Hyun-dan, Yoo Si-min."
This case was also referred to as a'prosecutor's office' due to suspicion that Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon had collided with the former reporter.