Suwon Mayor Lee Jae-jun Suspected of 'Illegal Party Member Recruitment'...Six People Including Current Civil Servants Face Arrest

Six people, including a current civil servant, face arrest in connection with alleged 'illegal membership recruitment' linked to Suwon Mayor Lee Jae-jun.

According to the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency and others on the 9th, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Division applied for pre-arrest warrants against six people, including current and former civil servants at Suwon City, on charges of violations of the Public Official Election Act last month, and the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office requested arrest warrants from the court on the 5th.

The pre-arrest questioning (warrant review hearing) for these individuals is scheduled to be held at the Suwon District Court at 1:30 p.m. on the 10th. The decision on arrest is expected to be made as early as late afternoon on the same day.

They are suspected of illegally recruiting party members to support Mayor Lee's re-election in the Democratic Party's primary for the Suwon Mayor candidate ahead of the 9th National Simultaneous Local Elections held on June 3rd.

This case began when a related complaint was filed with police in March. Kwon Hyuk-woo, then Democratic Party candidate for Suwon Mayor, also raised allegations of illegal party member recruitment by those close to Mayor Lee.

In May, police conducted a search and seizure at the office of a then Suwon City administrative official and the city hall office, securing related materials including mobile phones.

On the 7th of last month, police conducted a search and seizure of the Democratic Party Gyeonggi Province Branch office, securing computerized data including party member lists and membership applications, and have been analyzing connections to the alleged illegal party member recruitment.

On the 18th of last month, the mayor was reportedly summoned for questioning on a non-public basis.

Police are known to have moved to secure custody of six people for whom they determined the charges were relatively concrete among multiple suspects established during the investigation.

A police official said, "In the case of Suwon Mayor Lee Jae-jun, he is not included in this arrest warrant target, but he has not been a non-suspect since the complaint was first filed. Since there is a statute of limitations, we will do our best with the remaining time."