[Our News] It has been claimed that “Jeong Myeong-Seok, JMS president’s, luxurious life in prison was a false report”.

After reviewing a national inspection carried out by Daejeon Public Prosecutors Office on October 24, 2013, Congressman Park Beom-gye (a democrat of Daejeon Seo-gu-eul), member of The National Assembly of Legislation claimed that Jung Myeong-seok, the president of Christian Gospel Mission (known as JMS and CGM), has being leading a luxurious life in prison. However, on October 25, this issue was again reported on. It was covered in the press release, “The color of the sky.’ ‘The color of the sky’ asserted that the report issued by Congressman Park was not based on fact but on false information from an exaggerated and distorted report. 

The national inspection file distributed by Congressman Park said that President Jung received medical treatment 17 times from outside the prison in his 4 years of confinement, despite the fact that condition was healthy prior to imprisonment. He did not receive any proper treatment during the 6 years of his life in prison. Contrarily, President Jung has never received the benefit of medical treatments from outside the prison during his term of imprisonment. He only received a treatment from outside the prison once, because his gum disease became severe due to his age (69). The disease affected his life in prison by limiting his eating.  It was reported that the single instance of him undergoing treatment outside the prison was within normal process warranted by the regulations of his place of imprisonment. The dental care facility there was not properly equipped.

The report issued by Congressman Park claimed that President Jung delivered ‘Sunday messages’ 302 times during non-scheduled visitations and frequently used a cell phone to make calls from a blind spot inside the prison. However, the reporter of the press release asserted that President Jung has never delivered a Sunday message through non-scheduled visitations nor had he made frequent calls from a cell phone in a blind spot inside the prison. The reporter also asserted that this was obviously false information.

Concerning the matter of visitations, President Jung has only taken part in the regular visitations scheduled for all convicted felons. Special visitations, which proceeded under the authority of a prison warden, took place only very occasionally. Regarding the Sunday messages also, President Jung has been sending the original sermon documents that, written in his own hand, through the normal mailing system, and the person in charge of the Sunday messages received them from the post office, typed them out using a word processor, and used them for delivering sermons.

In addition, there was no evidence backing Congressman Park’s claim that President Jung violated ‘the law pertaining to the execution of a sentence and the treatment of a convict’ by uploading onto CGM’s website. Furthermore, there was no evidence that President Jung frequently borrowed cell phones from three different prison guards and made calls at a blind spot within the prison.                                                

President Jung was convicted because false information was given [to the court], Therefore, when the lawyer met with President Jung, they only discussed legal matters. The lawyer never delivered recorded messages to CGM’s headquarters. It is clear that false information has being circulated. 

Finally, Congressman Park claimed that President Jung frequently left the prison under the premise of receiving medical treatment from outside the prison and thereby contacted his church members. This claim is false: when he received his medical treatment from outside the prison he was strictly controlled according to prison regulation, and, since the fact that he received this medical treatment was secured information that he, himself, could not have leaked to anyone outside the prison, there is no evidence to suggest that he frequently contacted church members. The reporters of the second release asserted that, if President Jung had contacted his church members during his medical treatment outside the prison, Congressman Park  should reveal who contacted President Jung, when and which prison guards were involved in transferring him.

▲ Congressman Park’s has not made any statement regarding Jung Myeong-seok on Twitter.

Congressman Park usually tweets daily, but, as of 10:22pm, October 25th, he had yet to tweet anything related to President Jung Myeong-seok. This suggests that, concerning this matter, he does not have any evidence that he has confidence with.
 
It has not yet been determined whether Congressman Park falsely accused President Jung within the privilege of exemption from liability for his speech in the National Assembly or whether his claim that President Jung was living a luxurious life in prison was based on an assumption or report without evidence. Regardless, it can be expected that President Jung’s image has been tarnished due to the mass media’s continuous reports regarding his ‘luxurious life’.
 
If the claims made by the press release in ‘The color of the sky’ are correct, Congressman Park will be considered to be a person who falsely accused an innocent person of living a luxurious life, as if President Jung were the wife of the president of the well-known flour mill company who faked medical documents and was admitted into a VIP room in the hospital. This could spark a controversy in Congressman Park’s legislative immunity.

The Original Text : http://www.urinews.org/sub_read.html?uid=17783