SUWON, South Korea– A key figure in a high-profile development scandal is being treated at a hospital after attempting suicide, police said Thursday.
Kim Man-bae, who is standing trial in connection with a corruption-ridden apartment development project in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, tried to kill himself Wednesday, according to police.
Kim stabbed himself in the neck and chest with a weapon inside his car in Suwon, 34 kilometers south of Seoul, sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and again at around 1 p.m. His lawyer found him at 9:50 p.m., and emergency responders took him to a nearby hospital. The wounds are not life-threatening, police said.
“He was conscious and able to communicate when he was taken to the hospital the night before,” a police officer said.
The former journalist is the largest shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management company at the center of the case, which also involves close confidants of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party.
Kim was arrested in November last year but was released last month after the period of his detention expired.
Kim has recently complained that prosecutors are pressuring him to cooperate as they are stepping up their investigation into the opposition leader and his allies’ implication in the case.
“The prosecution keeps pressuring me to make up something. I am going to either make false statements or disappear. I feel like I will have to state something, and I am afraid of that.” he was quoted as telling people around him.
The highly lucrative housing development project was launched in 2015, when Lee was mayor of Seongnam.
Two former aides to Lee were arrested last month for taking illegal funds from people who led the business.
Kim’s accomplices, who have also been released from detention, have claimed Lee had a stake in the project and that they gave proceeds from the business to his aides.
Lee has denied such a claim, denouncing the prosecution for trying to fabricate charges against him in what he called a politically motivated probe.
On Thursday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sought arrest warrants for two executives of Kim’s company on suspicion of helping him conceal his assets. They were apprehended Tuesday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency