[Daejeon City Jornal] The Ministry of Justice Explained about ‘President Jung Myeong Seok Receiving Privileges in Prision’

The Ministry of Justice distributed data to explain about prisoner Jung Myeong Seok in Daejoen prison on October 24th. Congressman Park, a democrat of the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee and inspector of the administration of the Daejeon District Public Prosecutor’s office, submitted a claim based on circumstantial evidence that Jung Myeong Seok who is imprisoned in Daejeon prison was caught receiving special privileges in prison .  

About the claim the special privilege of having medical treatments from outside facilities, Ministry of Justice explained, “While it is true that President Jung received medical treatment from the outside 17 times from between May, 2009 and August, 2013, because he had a chronic gum disease that was difficult to treat at the correction facility, it was inevitable that he would receive medical treatments from the outside.”

In addition, they said, “The statistic that says that a regular prisoner receives medical treatment from the outside 0.5 times each year is just a simple numerical value obtained from the total number of medical treatment cases from the outside divided by the total number of prisoners. In addition, the number of medical treatment cases from the outside for prisoners who are suffering with diseases is actually much higher.”

About the claim that his lawyer interviewed him frequently, recorded sermons and delivered them to the church, and posted the documented sermons on an internet website that JMS operated, they said, “Jung Myeong Seok had an interview with the lawyer a total of 74 times during the period when [his] case of rape and fraud was on trial, but under the prison officer’s watch who was within eyesight, it is impossible to record every time, and especially after December, 2012 when the trial ended because there were no more interviews with the lawyer.” Furthermore, they added, “In the process of confirming the truth, we confirmed that President Jung  wrote sermons in the form of letters inside of his cell and mailed them outside, and then, the church members posted [them] on Christian Gospel Mission’s internet websites and other sites.”

About the claim that he contacted his church members using outside medical treatment facilities as an excuse, Ministry of Justice explained emphasizing that it is impossible for anyone besides the medical staff to contact people from the outside because the outside medical treatments are carried out under the strict and safe custody of more than three prison officers.

Also, about the claim that he borrowed a phone from a prison officer and made frequent calls to the outside, Ministry of Justice said that as a result of the investigation of the truth of Daejeon prison, President Jung has been strongly denying receiving and using a phone from a prison officer and stated that he would consider taking legal action against the media reporters that reported without confirming the truth.

The Ministry of Justice said that currently, a higher authority, Daejeon Local Correction Agency, is investigating the truth about things related to the report of [President Jung ] receiving a phone and the suspicion of [him] using it.

The original txet: http://www.gocj.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=58050