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Former president Lee Myung-bak covers his face as he is taken to the Seoul Eastern Detention Center from his home in the Nonhyeon neighborhood in Seoul on the morning of Mar. 22. (Photo Pool)

Former president Lee Myung-bak refused a visit for questioning by prosecutors on Mar. 26 to the Seoul Eastern Detention Center where he is currently being held. Legal analysts said the former President appeared to be refusing questioning that he sees nothing to gain from, while attempting to portray his refusal as “political resistance.”

Prosecutors and investigators including Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office first high-tech crime investigation division chief Shin Bong-su attempted to visit Seoul Eastern Detention Center that afternoon for Lee’s first questioning since being detained. But Lee refused to even meet with members of the investigation team.

A member of Lee’s legal team explained that they “met the [former] president in the reception room to ask him to at least come out and greet them if he could not be convinced [to agree to questioning].”

“He said that he had ‘no intention of reversing his position’ and asked us to deliver a pre-written document stating that he would ‘not agree to questioning’ to prosecutors before going back inside,” the legal team member said.

A senior official with the prosecutors said they “plan to [attempt to] question former President Lee again in the future.”

Attorney Kang Hoon, a member of Lee’s legal team, held a press conference around midday at the Kim & Chung Law Firm offices in Seoul’s Gangnam district to formally announce his plans to refuse questioning.

“The [former] President has stated numerous times that he would accept all responsibility,” the defense team said.

“But even after his detention, prosecutors have been summoning secretaries who worked with him and people around him nonstop for questioning and indiscriminately disclosing their unilateral allegations. Under the circumstances, he appears to have concluded that it is useless to expect a fair investigation and meaningless to agree to additional questioning by prosecutors,” the team added

With Lee denying all charges against him, prosecutors are left with little choice but to pursue additional questioning of his associates following his detention. Observers in and around the legal community said Lee may have grounds for complaint with the prosecutors’ investigation, but argued that they are not strong enough for him to refuse any and all questioning. Many are also accusing him of inconsistency after his team moved first to make his arrest warrant request public with its detailed allegations, only to cite the divulgence of charges as grounds for refusing questioning.

“I suspect that with prosecutors having obtained so much in terms of statements from associates and physical evidence, he determined that it would be disadvantageous to him to agree to question and provide more statements himself,” a senior prosecutor said, suggesting Lee is effectively exercising his right to remain silent. Fellow former President Park Geun-hye was questioned five times in a separate questioning room at Seoul Detention Center between her detention and indictment last year.

Lee’s decision to post on Facebook from behind bars the same day after refusing questioning was also seen as an effort to play up the “political oppression” aspect of his detention. In a Facebook message for the eighth anniversary of the ROKS Cheonan, Lee wrote, “I find it very regrettable that I was unable to keep my promise to visit [the victims of the Cheonan sinking] every year until the day of reunification. While I cannot meet you in person, I have never forgotten your devotion to your homeland, which I have engraved deeply on my heart.” The message appears to have been posted by another party at Lee’s direction.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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