Jun Kwang-hoon, the pastor of Sarang Jeil Church who is accused of spreading false claims that President Lee Jae-myung committed sexual assault in the past and served time in a juvenile detention center, has been referred to prosecutors.
The Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Investigation Bureau said on the 22nd that it had referred Jun to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office without detention on charges of defamation through the dissemination of false information under the Information and Communications Network Act.
Jun is accused of spreading false claims about Lee on two occasions. On July 5 last year, he said on his YouTube channel "Jun Kwang-hoon TV" that Lee had "committed a sexual assault below the Andong Dam. It was not just one person — Lee Jae-myung and several others."
On May 10 this year, during a Sunday service at Sarang Jeil Church streamed live on "Jun Kwang-hoon TV," Jun said Lee "did not finish middle school or high school, took the high school equivalency exam at a juvenile detention center, and somehow transferred into Chung-Ang University."
In response, the Christian Recovery Center of Peace Tree, a Protestant civic group, filed a complaint against Jun with police on May 11 this year. Police separately took up the July 5 remarks of last year on their own initiative, investigated them and referred both cases together.
Police summoned Jun for questioning as a suspect on Aug. 31 this year.
During questioning, Jun denied the charges, saying he had mistakenly said "juvenile detention center" when he meant "child laborer," according to sources. He also argued that his remarks about sexual assault were a quotation of comments made earlier at a news conference by Morse Tan, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice.
Police, however, concluded the remarks were false, citing the fact that Lee has no record of having been referred to a juvenile court division. They also found that intent and an aim to defame were established, noting that Jun made the remarks without any separate verification even though the facts could have been confirmed from publicly available material, including news reports.