Police said Tuesday they have requested prosecutors to charge four relatives of victims of April’s deadly ferry sinking with assault on a call driver and two passersby last month.
The four relatives, including Kim Byeong-gwon, the then chief of a task force of family members who lost their loved ones in the April 16 disaster, are accused of beating the driver and passersby on a street near the National Assembly on Sept. 17.
The four are believed to have assaulted the driver, surnamed Lee, after drinking with Rep. Kim Hyun of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who had taken them out for dinner, Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo Police Station investigating the case said.
Lee was beaten after complaining of having waited too long for the lawmaker to get in the car, police said, adding the two passersby were attacked after trying to help Lee.
Police said they have also recommended charges against Rep. Kim for assault and obstruction of justice.
Previously, police had sought arrest warrants against the five, which were turned down by a court, citing insufficient evidence and the absence of a flight risk.
The task force of family members and political parties have been locked in a bitter dispute over the terms of a bill to set up an independent probe into the sinking of the ferry Sewol.
The Sewol capsized off southwestern waters on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. Most of them were high school students on a field trip. (Yonhap)
