You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 618

You Have Been Defended – Episode 618 (618/641)

Before entering the interrogation room, Ko Yun-soo changed into a spare set of clothes prepared by his secretary team.

That didn’t make the fishy raw egg smell disappear, but there was no turning back.

Ko Yun-soo was truly doing his best.

Trying not to show any displeasure, trying not to show any contempt for others.

“Should I get you a towel?”

Heo Min-woo asked Ko Yun-soo as he entered the interrogation room and sat down.

He had seen raw egg splattered on his meticulously styled hair earlier.

He wouldn’t be able to wash his hair, but who knew if he might need a towel.

“It’s alright.”

Ko Yun-soo replied curtly.

Heo Min-woo shrugged and opened his laptop.

During the previous search and seizure, they had, of course, failed to find any evidence of a slush fund or overseas accounts containing a large sum of money.

Of course.

Hadn’t he replaced the hard drive with a new one?

You could bring a forensic grandfather [an extremely skilled or experienced forensic expert], and it would still be impossible to find anything inside.

And what about the paper documents?

He had shredded so much right before the search and seizure that the shredder was even warm to the touch.

That shredder probably never imagined it would be subjected to such overwork when it was sold to Wooshin.

“Mr. Ko Yun-soo, there’s a record of you leaving for Narita, Japan, on May 19th.”

Heo Min-woo asked, flipping through documents after completing the procedures such as identity verification before starting the investigation.

“Is that so.”

Ko Yun-soo replied as if he were listening to someone else’s story.

“What kind of answer is, ‘Is that so’?”

“I couldn’t give you a definite answer because I didn’t remember the exact date.”

Heo Min-woo chuckled.

“Really? Then you can start remembering from today. You left on May 19th.”

“Yes.”

“What was the purpose of your departure?”

“Um, it was probably to visit the local corporation.”

Ko Yun-soo pretended to think for a long time before giving a vague answer.

“Visiting the local corporation.”

“As you know, I travel abroad frequently. So it’s hard to remember everything. However, most of the purposes are business trips, so that’s what I answered.”

“You’re talking like it’s someone else’s business?”

“Currently, there are many issues that Wooshin needs to resolve, so it’s true that it’s difficult to remember every single date.”

“Mr. Ko Yun-soo, you haven’t suddenly become a suspect. Wooshin has been publicly suspected of organ trafficking for a long time. But in this situation, you haven’t even grasped the timeline? Isn’t this organ trafficking issue the biggest problem Wooshin needs to solve? What problems were you solving that you neglected this?”

Heo Min-woo pressed, as if he was dumbfounded, and Ko Yun-soo replied calmly.

“It’s a well-known fact that Wooshin is receiving baseless accusations. I understand that the criteria for prioritizing within Wooshin may give the impression that it is not reasonable to some. I am generally in a position to receive reports…….”

“So, Mr. Ko Yun-soo, are you just waiting for your employees to report on issues related to you without doing anything yourself?”

Heo Min-woo asked, and Ko Yun-soo paused for a moment as if thinking.

Then he soon gave a fluent answer.

“It is true that the organ trafficking allegations are the most prioritized task among the challenges facing our Wooshin. However, there are various fields that need to be checked when looking into the organ trafficking case. I judged that my departure date was of lower priority among them.”

The night Ko Sang-joon and Ko Yun-soo were both converted to suspects, Cha Joo-han and Kang Min-jae met Ko Yun-soo.

That day, Kang Min-jae left a comment saying, ‘Seeing Ko Yun-soo, that bastard, shamelessly and plausibly wagging his tongue, I wanted to punch him. I guess he took a class on talking when he was young.’

I felt like I knew why Kang Min-jae said that.

“Well, let’s say that’s the case. Then what did you do after leaving for the local corporation on May 19th?”

“I don’t remember well.”

“Then I’ll have to help you remember.”

Heo Min-woo played the audio file containing the conversation between Ko Yun-soo and Onodera.

The scene of Onodera shouting at Ko Yun-soo to kneel, and pouring alcohol over his head, was the beginning.

Even though it was a very humiliating part, Ko Yun-soo didn’t flinch.

Rather, he tilted his head and even rolled his eyes as if trying to remember.

“You heard this recording, right? It’s not the first time you’ve heard it, is it?”

“Ah, I heard it because it’s been quite a hot topic.”

“The conversation in this recording took place on May 19th. That day, Mr. Ko Yun-soo visited the local corporation in Japan and then met with former Prime Minister Onodera Masao and former Assemblyman Oda Satoshi.”

“……Is that so.”

“You don’t remember this either?”

Isn’t this a level where you should suspect dementia?

It’s a problem directly related to management ability, so it wouldn’t be strange to propose a dismissal motion.

“That’s right. Since I have a job where I meet a lot of people, and I can’t go to one place on an overseas business trip multiple times, I try to handle everything I can while I’m there. So there are so many schedules that I can’t remember them all. I’m sorry for not being able to give you a clear answer.”

Ko Yun-soo’s expression even seemed sincere as he said that.

He even seemed to feel sorry for being in a situation where he wanted to answer the police’s questions faithfully but couldn’t.

It seems that Ko Yun-soo has taken not only speech classes but also acting classes.

“I can’t understand it. On this day, Mr. Ko Yun-soo suffered considerable humiliation from former Prime Minister Onodera. You seem to have briefly lost your temper to the point of swearing at the interpreter next to you. Isn’t that usually an event you would remember for the rest of your life? But you don’t even remember that this happened?”

When Heo Min-woo asked, this time the lawyer stepped forward.

“Mr. Ko Yun-soo. You don’t have to answer.”

Then he turned his head towards Heo Min-woo.

“It seems like you’re trying to continue the investigation using the recording file, is that correct?”

“So what.”

“Currently, former Assemblyman Oda Satoshi, who is known as the source of the recording file, is strongly claiming that he never recorded it and that he was wiretapped. If it’s true that he was wiretapped, this recording file has no evidentiary power. And losing evidentiary power means, as you know, that this evidence should be treated as if it never existed from the beginning.”

“So?”

“Therefore, unless it is certain that it is not a wiretap, we cannot testify about the contents of that recording file.”

Yes, that would be the best way.

Heo Min-woo paused for a moment and wrote down the lawyer’s words.

Only the sound of keyboard typing filled the interrogation room.

Heo Min-woo, who had put a period at the end of the last sentence, asked Ko Yun-soo again.

“As a result of a multifaceted review of the files provided by Kim Mi-ja at the investigation headquarters, there were no points to suspect wiretapping. We have sent a request to the cloud operator that Kim Mi-ja uploaded and downloaded the files to check the server records, so it will soon become clearer. The investigation headquarters has no reason to think that this file is a wiretap based only on Oda Satoshi’s claim. You can’t just treat the existing evidence as non-existent as you please, can you?”

“…….”

“Then can you present evidence that this file is a wiretap?”

“Since Mr. Ko Yun-soo has nothing to do with the creation of the file, he cannot present evidence. However, I think it is impossible to determine whether it is a wiretap until the server records of the cloud operator, as well as the Japanese police investigation, are completed.”

The right to refuse to testify is a natural right that a suspect can exercise.

If there are disadvantages due to the refusal to testify, he must also bear that.

Even if we put aside the disadvantages in the investigation, if a report is released after today’s investigation that ‘Ko Yun-soo refused to testify,’ he will be showered with abuse.

Ah, Wooshin didn’t care whether the pigs and dogs cursed or not [didn’t care about public opinion or criticism].

Heo Min-woo nodded and wrote down the answer again.

“Then I’ll ask differently. Did Mr. Ko Yun-soo know anything about the plan to perform an illegal heart transplant on Onodera Masao’s grandson?”

“…….”

“I’m not asking about the content I learned through the recording file, but about the questions that have arisen through the investigation so far. You know that Ko Sang-joon and Ko Yun-soo were quite suspected until Kim Soo-chan and Gong Won-ho turned themselves in, right? Did you know nothing at all?”

“…….”

“Are you exercising your right to remain silent?”

Heo Min-woo asked again.

Ko Yun-soo still had no answer.

Heo Min-woo sighed and started typing again.

In some ways, it’s an obvious choice.

If he babbled that he didn’t know again here, and the Japanese police also said that there were no signs of wiretapping, wouldn’t it be like insisting even though there was obvious evidence?

“I thought you were only refusing to testify about the facts confirmed in the recording file, but that wasn’t the case. I understand.”

Heo Min-woo clicked his tongue in his mind.

Try to cover the sky with your palm [attempt the impossible].

Just because you treat it like it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it really doesn’t exist.

The fact that you specifically talked about it in the organ trafficking plan clearly exists.

“Then let’s move on to the next one. Mr. Ko Yun-soo was also involved in the attempted murder of Cha Joo-han by the contract killer Cheon Jong-nam. You are also suspected of instigating the kidnapping of Cheon Jong-nam to Japan after using drugs to knock him out.”

“I will exercise my right to remain silent on all content that can only be recognized through the recording file.”

The lawyer answered instead.

Then Heo Min-woo sighed deeply.

“You know, counsel. It’s not too late to listen to me until the end and then speak. We have plenty of time. Get consent and speak. Don’t interfere with the investigation.”

“…….”

In a typical case, the lawyer is careful because he knows that if he interferes too much, it may be seen as obstructing the investigation.

There are also rookie lawyers who are sometimes kicked out of the interrogation room for showing excessive enthusiasm.

But why do lawyers forget such basic things when they accompany so-called high-ranking people?

“Who says it’s content that can only be recognized through the recording file?”

At Heo Min-woo’s words, the lawyer frowned slightly as if he couldn’t understand.

“You already know what Cheon Jong-nam testified, right? Ah, you must have missed checking it because it was pushed back in priority.”

Heo Min-woo took out one of the stacks of files on his desk and opened it.

“You know that there were people who tried to kidnap Cheon Jong-nam, who was hiding after failing to commit the contract killing, right? Cheon Jong-nam said that he told the instigator his location because they said they would give him money, but the people who came were not the instigator but people he had never seen before. These people tried to knock Cheon Jong-nam unconscious, but Cheon Jong-nam escaped. And these people also disappeared.”

This is also content that Choi Jong-hyun and Jo Bong-joon kindly pointed out for viewers who had forgotten or didn’t know well.

Wooshin is a more enthusiastic viewer of the broadcasts of the two people than anyone else, so there’s no way they wouldn’t know.

Still, Heo Min-woo emphasized it again in order to respect the concept they were pushing.

“The police have been tracking these people based on this statement. ……You know up to here, right?”

“Yes. I came across it through an article.”

Came across it through an article.

You sent your underlings to kill Cheon Jong-nam, but you couldn’t get in touch with them, they didn’t show up at the agreed-upon place, Donghae Port, and no matter how much you searched, you couldn’t see either the underlings or Cheon Jong-nam, so you were very anxious.

Then, when Cheon Jong-nam admitted to the contract killing and talked about the underlings, I knew that you were working hard to find them before the police.

Were you very confused about whether Cha Joo-han had the underlings or whether they had run away on their own?

If Cha Joo-han had them, you were very busy for a while figuring out why he hadn’t handed them over to the police yet, even though Cheon Jong-nam had turned himself in.

Why do you keep talking like it’s someone else’s business from earlier, it’s your story.

……I want to say that.

Heo Min-woo smacked his lips.

“The people who tried to kidnap Cheon Jong-nam recently turned themselves in. They all admitted that Cheon Jong-nam’s statements were all true. They said they were instructed to put Cheon Jong-nam on a ship heading to Japan that was docked at Donghae Port, and if it seemed difficult to get to Donghae Port, they could just kill him.”

“…….”

“Mr. Ko Yun-soo, do you really know nothing, nothing at all, about that fact, or who gave that instruction?”