An early morning call
"I couldn't sleep at night. I wish we could meet and talk..."
Early in the early morning of the 2nd, my eyes flashed at the first words of the taxi driver over the phone.
'The video will be released'
, the intuition was not wrong.
The vivid moment at the time of the assault in the taxi of former Vice Justice Lee Yong-gu, which had only been communicated through words, was revealed to the world a few hours after the taxi driver made a firm decision.
▶ [Exclusive] Lee Yong-gu, strangling and swearing…
37 seconds black box acquisition
"To find out the truth, I trusted the police..."
It's been about six months since the former Vice Justice Minister Lee's assault on a taxi driver arose.
He said that no matter how persuasive he was, he could not give out to the media as much as a black box video of the assault.
The reason was that it could interfere with the ongoing investigation.
I felt a strong belief that the police would soon reveal the truth.
But as time passed, my faith began to crack.
The perpetrator, who became the Vice Minister of Justice, kept his mouth shut, and only the boring truth battles continued with the police officer of the Seocho Police Station who was in charge of the case.
Meanwhile, the victim of the assault became a suspect on the charge of destroying evidence that supported the cover-up.
The situation of assault, which lasted only 30 seconds, was repeatedly explained in several dozens of hours of police investigations and the same information was stated to the prosecution, but the frustrating situation continued.
The former deputy minister, who was the perpetrator, only came to the police and investigated after a long time after allegations arose.
“It was the former Deputy Minister who suggested the false statement, not me.”
It was around this time that I felt that something was seriously wrong.
The former deputy minister said that he told the police, "The taxi driver first offered to make a false statement about the case."
At the police interrogation, the driver simply complains that he is absurd.
Rather, it was the former Deputy Minister Lee who insisted on making false statements, because he rejected all the proposals.
▶ [Exclusive] Before the police investigation, "Please open the back door and wake me up"
"The
driver got off and opened the door behind me, and in the process of waking me up, can't you just do what I grabbed by the neck? The
video was also filmed, but I thought to myself what this person was talking about."
- Taxi driver
Regarding the process of ending the internal investigation by saying, "I'll pretend I didn't see it," even after the detective in charge saw the video of the assault scene, the claim that "the article asked me to pretend I didn't see the video first" was very painful.
Two days after the incident, he began to question whether Lee's apology was sincere, who came to him and bowed his head, handing him a settlement money he had never asked for.
Faith was shattered by the attitude of the police, who pointed the lie detector at themselves rather than the perpetrators.
The article said that what was difficult to bear as much as the reporters who camped in front of their house every day were the criticism of 'I get a huge settlement and say something different now' and the pressure that comes from the fact that the person I am dealing with is a high-ranking government official in the end .
Meanwhile, the case was getting farther away from its essence.
That's why I brought out the black box video of 'The Day'.
▶ Taxi driver also charged with 'destroying evidence'...
"The essence is driver assault"
"
It seemed that the essence of the allegations of a
high-ranking official's assault on the driver and an attempt to cover it up by
superiors kept getting forgotten. They were only trying to shift the responsibility of the police and cutting off their tails."
- Taxi driver
"XXX" video released... Resignation of Deputy Minister of Justice repaired
The waves were great.
The scene in which the incumbent justice minister strangled the taxi driver while swearing at him was a shock in itself (even though it happened while he was a lawyer).
It also shook public opinion when it was revealed that former Vice Minister Lee, a lawyer who knows the crime of driver assault better than anyone else, contacted him and suggested that "tell me about what happened while waking a passenger who was sleeping in a taxi stand."
"I am well aware that there is no excuse for assaulting a person for any reason, and I apologize once again to the taxi driver for causing damage to the taxi driver who was not at fault."
- From the entrance statement of former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu (June 3, 2021)
Former Vice Minister Lee, who had been consistent in silence, gave a two-page statement the next day after the SBS report and bowed his head.
Former Vice Minister Lee said, "It happened while I was drunk and misunderstood the situation." "I know that there is no excuse for assaulting a person. I apologize," he said.
He also acknowledged the fact that he requested that the video be deleted for fear that it might be spread to third parties, but explained that there was no agreement at all for the same conditional in return for the deletion of the video.
▶ Resignation repair after assault video was released
"Apologize to the victim" The
Blue House also officially accepted Lee's resignation on the same day.
The controversy over whether a taxi was in operation at the time of Lee's assault was also virtually settled through a public video, raising expectations for finding out the truth.
Police "There was no intervention from superiors. It's not even cutting the tail"... remaining doubts
However, the results of the police investigation that came out a week later are not clear.
In particular, the conclusion that there was no external pressure or solicitation in the process of closing the case was frowned upon.
The problem was that the detective in charge did not properly report the video even after checking the video, and the article deleted the video at the request of the former vice minister, so it could not lead to an official investigation.
In the meantime, the detective in charge announced that he would hand over the charges to the prosecution on charges of negligence of special duties, and the former vice minister and the knight on charges of destroying evidence and destroying evidence, respectively.
At that time, there is still an inspection of the Seocho Police Station chief and executives, but in fact, it has been concluded as a personal deviation.
Doubts remain.
Some of the phone calls were deleted by those involved in the case, and above all, it was revealed that the police officers were familiar with the fact that former Vice Minister Lee was mentioned as a candidate for the head of the high-ranking public officials crime investigation department, which was about to be launched at the time of the incident.
The police repeatedly emphasized that it was not a 'tail cutting', but some in the legal circles responded, "I wonder if the superiors did not know about the assault on the knight by the former vice minister in the police organization where reporting is life."
Moreover, it was also revealed late that former Vice Minister Lee had been in contact with Choo Mi-ae, a policy adviser to the then Minister of Justice, several times.
▶ “After the incident, I spoke with aide Choo Mi-ae”…
Did you know about the Ministry of Justice? (After about a month of assault, Lee became the Vice Minister of Justice after being recommended by the former Minister of Justice.)
Such suspicion draws attention to the prosecutor who took over the ball.
Separately from the police, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office has been investigating former Vice Minister Lee's allegations of assault on a driver under the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specific Crimes and whether there was external pressure.
According to the conclusion of the police, there are many voices calling for a more thorough investigation and verification to see if there was really any unreasonable intervention or attempt to hide the crimes of high-ranking officials.
"If there's a mistake, I'll take responsibility too, but..."
The taxi driver did not speak to SBS reporters who asked for opinions on the police's announcement.
This is because there is a concern that if we refute and respond to the results of investigations by public institutions one by one, unnecessary misunderstandings may arise.
Instead, it is a position to watch the prosecution's investigation calmly.
He also emphasized that there is something more important than finding out what has been going on between the 'high people' that he doesn't know.
Hitting taxi drivers while they are driving should stop.
"Even after my case became known, the assaults on the drivers continued for half a year. Some people were killed. I'm going to tell this former Vice Minister what kind of shame I have. With
this incident, please stop touching people who drive buses or taxis. The road...
"
- Taxi driver
※ The full version of the taxi driver's first official interview can be found on SBS News YouTube.
[Exclusive interview] Taxi driver Lee Yong-gu injured, "Jong Yong-do made a false statement"