The joint investigation headquarters of prosecutors and police (JIH), which is investigating alleged collusion between the Unification Church and Shincheonji and politics, is conducting searches and seizures on the 30th of Shincheonji facilities in connection with allegations of "forced party membership."
According to legal sources on the 30th, the JIH from the morning searched and seized the Shincheonji general assembly headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, the Peace Training Center (Peace Palace) in Goseong-ri, Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi, and other locations, targeting Shincheonji officials. This is the first search and seizure related to the Shincheonji case since the JIH was launched.
The JIH is looking into allegations that Shincheonji General Assembly Chair Lee Man-hee and other leaders forced followers to sign up as dues-paying members to influence the People Power Party's 20th presidential primary in 2021 and the People Power Party's 22nd general election primary in 2024. Lee and others were reportedly listed as suspects on charges of violating the Political Parties Act and interfering with business in the search and seizure warrants.
Investigators are said to have obtained testimony from a former executive that Shincheonji encouraged followers to join the party under a project called "Pilates," resulting in tens of thousands signing up as dues-paying members of the People Power Party. The JIH is also said to have obtained materials such as the content of party membership instructions followers received and recordings of Lee and related officials.
During the investigation, there has also been discussion that after Gyeonggi Province's epidemiological investigation and police investigation during the COVID-19 period, relations between the progressive camp and Shincheonji deteriorated, and that Shincheonji sought to exert influence in politics through the conservative camp, according to internal testimony. It also includes accounts that the leadership encouraged party membership with the intent to "repay Yoon Suk-yeol." As background, it has been mentioned that in March 2020, when former President Yoon Suk-yeol was prosecutor general, police applied for a search and seizure warrant for the Shincheonji Daegu Church, identified as the origin of the COVID-19 spread, but prosecutors rejected it twice.
Shincheonji maintains that the allegations of forced party enrollment and primary interference are not true. In a statement, Shincheonji said it was "willing to provide a list of congregants with the consent of the believers," and urged authorities to "conduct a joint investigation simultaneously into the congregation list and the membership rolls of each political party, including the Democratic Party of Korea and the People Power Party." Shincheonji is also said to have argued that "if political collusion actually existed, the current situation in which even church facilities purchased through legitimate procedures cannot be used as religious facilities cannot be explained."