The National Police Agency’s special investigation unit handling three high-profile special-prosecutor transfer cases said it transferred Lee to prosecutors that afternoon without detaining him.
The special unit had summoned Lee for questioning as a suspect on the 13th of last month.
Investigators say Lee provided false testimony when he appeared as a witness at the fifth hearing of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on Feb. 4 of last year.
At that hearing, lawyers for Yoon asked whether Lee had ever been ordered by a minister or the president to prevent lawmakers from voting to lift martial law if troops were dispatched to the National Assembly. Lee answered, “No.”
Earlier, Kim Han-me, head of the civic group Citizens’ Action to Restore Judicial Justice (Sasehaeng), filed a complaint alleging that Lee, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, former counterintelligence commander Yeo In-hyung and others gave false testimony during the impeachment proceedings.
Speaking at a press conference outside the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Kim accused the defendants of participating in efforts to blockade the National Assembly and detain key figures to paralyze the legislature’s constitutional authority to vote on lifting martial law. “They allegedly followed unconstitutional, illegal orders and, when faced with investigation for engaging in major duties related to an insurrection, gave false testimony to avoid prosecution,” Kim said. “They must be held accountable for perjury.”
Separately, Lee was indicted in December 2024 on charges that he ordered Capital Defense Command troops to move on the National Assembly immediately after the Dec. 3 emergency-martial-law declaration and was tried in a military court. At the request of the special prosecutor team investigating the alleged insurrection, led by Special Prosecutor Jo Eun-seok, that case was moved to the Seoul Central District Court, a civilian court, in December. The same month, the Ministry of National Defense dismissed Lee and converted him to civilian status.
