Exclusive: Police probe false-accusation claim by lawmaker facing groping allegations

Police have launched an investigation into whether the sexual misconduct allegations against independent lawmaker Jang Gyeong-tae amount to a false accusation.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's anti-corruption investigation unit questioned Jang as a complainant for about nine hours starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The session came roughly 10 months after Jang filed a counter-complaint in December last year against a woman identified as A, who had accused him of quasi-forcible indecent assault. Jang also filed the same false-accusation charge against a man identified as B, A's former boyfriend, who filmed the video of the alleged groping that was later made public.

Jang is also understood to have submitted to police, as evidence supporting his false-accusation claim, chat logs exchanged the day after the Oct. 23, 2024, dinner at which the alleged assault is said to have occurred — messages between himself and women who were present at the gathering. He also secured and submitted group chat records among those attendees. The group chat reportedly included messages expressing concern that the women might face unwarranted harm simply for having been at the same table as Jang.

Earlier, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's women and juvenile crime investigation unit referred Jang to prosecutors on charges including quasi-forcible indecent assault on March 27. Police said the referral was based on their investigation findings and the outcome of a criminal investigation review committee hearing. The review committee, which convened on March 19 of the same month, recommended referring Jang on the quasi-forcible indecent assault charge.

After police announced the referral, Jang posted on his SNS account saying he had requested lie-detector tests and face-to-face confrontations involving himself, the complainant and the other attendees "because I had nothing to hide," and that "police ignored that request as well as my request to question key witnesses." He added that he would "fight through the legal process to reveal the truth of this case and prove my innocence."

The case has been under supplementary investigation at the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office for about five months.