Lee Man-hee's Shincheonji Representatives Deny Charges of Forcing Party Membership at First Trial

Lee Temporarily Released on September 22 for Health Reasons

Representatives of Lee Man-hee, the leader of the Shincheonji Church, who has been put on trial for allegedly forcing followers to join the People Power Party as members, denied the charges at the first court hearing.

At the first hearing on September 21 before the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 27 (Presiding Judge Woo In-seong), Lee's defense attorney stated, "There was no coercion, intent, or collusion relationship as required by the Political Parties Act violation."

The attorney further explained, "It is difficult to establish that deceit or undue influence was involved, so we intend to contest the entire indictment." The defense also denied the charge of obstruction of work.

Yonhap News Agency

On this day, the court once again granted Lee's application for a suspension of detention; reportedly, this was due to health reasons. As a result, Lee will be temporarily released from the morning until the evening of September 22. Additionally, when Lee continued to make remarks unrelated to the charges, the court expressed the view that he should undergo a cognitive ability assessment.

Lee was indicted and detained on charges of forcing approximately 50,000 followers to join the People Power Party from 2021 to 2024, allegedly to influence presidential and legislative primaries.

According to the joint investigation team on religious-politics collusion corruption, the Shincheonji Church encouraged members to join the party under various project names such as the "Pilates Project" to address church-related issues, and as a result, more than 56,472 followers became party members.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.