▲ This undated file photo shows the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office. (Yonhap)

fake news probe-raid

Prosecutors raid opposition lawmaker's aide over alleged fake news on Yoon

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors on Wednesday raided the offices and other locations linked to an aide to opposition lawmaker Kim Byung-wook and an online media reporter over allegations of a fake news report in the run-up to last year's presidential election.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent prosecutors and investigators to four places related to the aide, surnamed Choi, and the home of Repoact reporter Heo Jae-hyun to seize evidence on the suspicion that they colluded to produce fake news on March 1 last year to back up speculation at that time that Yoon Suk Yeol, then opposition party presidential candidate, was behind the scandal-ridden Daejang-dong development scandal.

Choi and Heo have already been booked on charges of defaming Yoon with their fake news report. Yoon won the presidential election held on March 9, 2022.

The prosecution has been separately investigating allegations that Kim Man-bae, a key suspect in the Daejang-dong project pushed in the mid-2010s by opposition leader Lee Jae-myung as the mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, falsely suggested in his interview with journalist Shin Hak-lim in September 2021 that Yoon was the mastermind of the development scandal.

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