<Anchor> In



January, we told about the actual situation of buying people's consent by paying money after posting on the Blue House National Petition bulletin board.

After the report, the police immediately investigated the meaning of the national petition system, saying that the meaning of the petition system was distorted, and looked for people who made this kind of thing, but punishment is not easy.



For some reason, reporter Ha Jeong-yeon covered it.



<Reporter> This is a



KakaoTalk anonymous chat room article saying that if you press consent to the Blue House national petition, you will deposit 500 won per case.



Dozens of participants uploaded consent verification photos and account numbers.



Some said that as many as dozens of cases were agreed.



[Mr. A/chat room participant: 1st recruitment, 2nd recruitment link.

Separate person who deposits...

.]



Similar work was being carried out in the citizen petition of the local government, which is modeled after the Blue House national petition.



Immediately after the SBS report, the police, who set a strict response policy, began an investigation and soon identified the substance of the case.



An official from the arrested first-birth party association stated that it was an action to exclude the first-birth party from the ban on private gatherings of five or more people.



A person who led a part-time job to agree on a petition for citizens of the local government was also caught.



They all confessed that it was due to private expenses.




The police have even investigated the statements and secured evidence, but are unable to proceed with further investigations.



Because of the results of legal advice.



In the first place, I tried to apply the charges of hierarchical obstruction of public affairs, but this is not appropriate.



They were given consent by giving money, but they did not meet the target number and were unable to derive a response from the government or local governments.



As a result, it was difficult to apply the charges because there was no unnecessary mobilization of administrative power.



[Yoon Heo/Chief Spokesperson of the Korean Bar Association: It is impeding the execution of public affairs only when public officials are actually working.

(But) the act of manipulating public opinion through the public petition bulletin board distorts the public opinion or the purpose of creating the bulletin board...

.] The



police said they would continue to review the penalties and the like to prevent similar cases from happening.



(Video coverage: Yang Hyun-cheol, video editing: Kim Jong-tae)