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Former Deputy Attorney General Lee Yong-koo will soon face trial on charges of assaulting a taxi driver while he was a lawyer. Although the prosecution took ten months to prosecute former Vice Minister Lee, there was criticism that the investigation was delayed.



Reporter Ahn Hee-jae reported exclusively.



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[Lee Yong-gu / Former Vice Minister of Justice (November of last year): What are you? (Uh huh! Everything is photographed!)]



Former Deputy Attorney General Lee Yong-gu was indicted without detention last September for assaulting a taxi driver while driving. 



It had been 10 months since the assault happened. 



He was handed over to the trial for assault on a driver under the Special Act, which can lead to up to five years in prison, but the disciplinary process he had to go through as a lawyer did not proceed until three months after the indictment. 



It is pointed out that the prosecution provided the cause here. 



The Attorneys Act stipulates that if a lawyer finds misconduct during an investigation, the head of the district prosecutor's office must apply to the Korean Bar Association to initiate disciplinary procedures.



In late June, the Korean Bar Association sent an official letter to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice asking for disciplinary action if a lawyer's misconduct was discovered during an investigation. 



It was about 20 days after the video of former Vice Minister Lee assaulting a taxi driver was released. 



After receiving the official document, the prosecution informed the Bar Association of 29 cases of misconduct by other lawyers and applied for disciplinary action, but it was confirmed that the former vice-minister case was omitted.



From the delayed prosecution to the omission of the application for disciplinary action, it was only in the case of the former vice-minister that things different from the usual case took place. 



Prosecutors acknowledged that they did not apply for disciplinary action against former Vice Minister Lee, but said it was a simple mistake, and said that they applied for disciplinary action today (the 7th) after SBS coverage began.



Former Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu, who recently opened a lawyer's office, is due to receive his first trial next week on charges of assaulting a taxi driver.



(Video coverage: Seo Jin-ho, Video editing: Won-hee Won)