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Cause Unclear for Ohio Trustee Stabbed, Found Dead in Lake

A coroner says the cause of death for a northeastern Ohio township trustee found in a lake has been ruled as undetermined.

July 25, 2017, at 6:39 a.m.

MEDINA, Ohio (AP) — A coroner says the cause of death for a northeastern Ohio township trustee found in a lake has been ruled as undetermined.

The Medina (meh-DY'-nuh) County Coroner says Lafayette Township Trustee Bryon Macron was found with six stab wounds, but none of those alone caused his death.

The coroner says there wasn't enough evidence to rule the death a suicide, but the county sheriff's office says evidence indicates that no one other than Macron was involved in his death.

The 45-year-old Macron was reported missing on Dec. 16. Later that day, authorities found his office in disarray and discovered his vehicle parked several miles away, in a lot at Chippewa Lake.

A kayaker found his body in the lake on Feb. 21.

The investigation is ongoing.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Many citizens don't buy authorities' Macron story

Carly Flynn Morgan , WKYC 11:09 PM. EDT July 24, 2017

MEDINA COUNTY - A news conference by authorities leaves more questions than answers with one Northeast Ohio community.

Medina County authorities said during a news conference, Monday, that the cause and manner of Bryon Macron’s death have been ruled undetermined. People in Medina are following this case closely and everyone WKYC Channel 3 spoke with Monday evening told us something here clearly isn’t right.

Bryon Macron went missing in December. Blood and a mess were discovered at his office in the Lafayette Township headquarters where he worked as a trustee. His SUV found with blood, too, three miles away at Chippewa Lake. Kayakers came upon his body in the water there two months later.

In time, we’d learn Macron suffered six stab wounds. But according to the Medina County Coroner, those didn’t cause his death. She also said there was no evidence of water in his lungs from drowning.

The Medina County Sheriff’s Department also said this could not have been a murder.

“Based on all of the evidence obtained to date… no other person other than Bryon Macron was involved in his death,” said Capt. David Centner.

This would mean authorities believe Macron stabbed himself six times, ransacked his own office, drove three miles to Chippewa Lake and then entered the water himself.

People around Medina County following the case just don’t believe the husband and father of three could have or would have done this alone.

“It really can’t seem that it’s just one person, ya know. The deductive logic really kinda seems funny to have that situation happen as it panned out,” said Jay Klinect.

“Someone’s just not gonna fall onto a knife six times then jump into a lake. It’s just not gonna happen,” said Derek Pincombe.

“It does definitely sound suspicious,” Becky Milewski told us.

Despite the inconclusive autopsy, authorities say the investigation does remain active.

Inquiry launched after mystery air crash kills Brazilian environmentalists

Army and police investigate unexplained incident in which scientists tasked with fighting deforestation and illegal mining in the Amazon died

Vincent Bevins - Friday 28 July 2017 08.42 EDT

Environmental analyst Olavo Perim Galvão, who died in a plane crash on 3 July, disembarks from an Ibama helicopter to seek deforesters in the Amazon. Photograph: Vincent Bevins for LA Times

Investigation is underway into an unexplained plane crash in the Amazon that left four dead, including members of Brazil’s special environmental protection forces.

Environmental analysts Olavo Perim Galvão and Alexandre Rochinski died alongside administrative technician Sebastião Lima Ferreira Junior and the aircraft’s pilot, Marcos Costa Jardim. Another analyst, Lazlo Macedo de Carvalho, survived the crash on 3 July and is receiving treatment for burns in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil’s Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources said the agents died while on a mission to combat deforestation and illegal gold extraction. Ibama agents are trained scientists who go into areas of conflict heavily armed, often in the face of death threats or violent resistance.

Olavo’s family believe his role as an environmentalist cost him his life. “Olavo was a wonderful human being,” his cousin Leonardo Galvão told the Guardian. “Olavo died trying to save the Amazon. He believed that he was making a difference, and so did we. He had a dream and was on a mission, and his mission killed him.”

His friends and relatives have been planting a forest in his native state of Espírito Santo to commemorate his life and work.

In Brazil, the Amazon and other environmental resources are governed by overlapping sets of regulations and security forces. Ibama agents answer to the federal government and ultimately the president, enforcing laws against direct environmental destruction.

They operate in dangerous territory and are often hated by the country’s numerous illegal deforesters, who often put cattle on the land or convert it to soya farms.

In recent years, Ibama agents have complained they are fighting a losing battle, as they lack the resources to fly above enough of the country’s vast territory – Brazil is twice the size of the EU – looking for holes in the forest. They complain that, even when they can catch criminals in the act, the penalties they attempt to apply get held up in the courts.

A recent Guardian report claimed Brazil is “deliberately losing the battle against deforestation” after the lobby for soy and beef production grew politically stronger even as the country moved to the right and the economy declined.

In 2015, a Los Angeles Times investigation accompanied Olavo and his colleagues as they worked in the state of Maranhão. The group described how their helicopter had been shot at from the ground, and how civilians caught speaking with them or reporting crimes risked targeted assassination.

They said criminals unconcerned with saving the Amazon continued with illegal deforestation operations, using violence in the process, because it makes economic sense under the existing system and they are unlikely to get caught.

The small plane, chartered by the Brazilian army, crashed over the northern state of Roraima, which borders Venezuela and Guyana. According to Ibama, it had been heading to the Yanomami indigenous reserve. Large sections of Brazil are officially designated as protected indigenous land, but, like the regulations prohibiting deforestation, these rules are often ignored in practice, with reserves invaded for profit.

According to local news reports, the men’s bodies were badly charred. Investigations by the Brazilian armed forces and federal police are ongoing.

Canadian found dead in Thai cell wanted for running ‘dark web’ market

Mother-of-two Wall Street recruiter, 40, jumps to her death from her $3.6million Upper East Side home

Published: 15:04 EDT, 28 August 2017

[...]

Authorities have not released any more information on Jacoby's death.

It is not known if she left a suicide note.

The city Medical Examiner will determine the precise cause of death.

Her tragic death comes months after Margaret Fagenson committed suicide by jumping from a 14th-floor terrace at 535 E. 86th St., which is across the street from 12 Henderson.

The 68-year-old woman, who was married to a wealthy investment banking CEO, suffered from depression, the Post reported.

Police Investigate Suicide Of Second Woman In Attorney's Home

Sep 18, 2017

GALLATIN, Tenn - The Sumner County sheriff is investigating the apparent suicide of a woman found dead in the home of a prominent attorney earlier this year.

But NewsChannel 5 Investigates has learned this isn't the first time a woman has committed suicide in the attorney's home.

Now the fathers of both of the women are speaking out.

They believe their daughters were lured into a world of sex clubs prior to their deaths.

Curtice Rogers is still haunted by the death of his 28 year old daughter Marlene.

"That's my daughter one hundred percent laughing an smiling," Rogers said as he pointed to a picture.

He remembers getting an early morning call on May 17, from her 77 year old boyfriend Larry Roberts.

"He said your daughter shot herself. I found her in the garage. I was like 'what?'" Rogers said.

Larry Roberts told investigators with the Sumner County Sheriff's Department that Marlene shot herself in the head - with his gun - while he was asleep.

NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Rogers, "Do you think she committed suicide?"

"No, No I don't." Rogers said.

Police don't have any evidence to support his opinion.

Rogers admitted his daughter had a troubled history which included drug arrests.

He said Marlene met Larry Roberts while she was living on the streets and another man came up to her.

"He said to her, 'I know this guy that would really like you' and he drove her to Larry's house in Gallatin," Rogers said.

Despite the age difference, Marlene ended up moving in with Larry Roberts - an attorney known for representing Nashville swingers clubs.

Among Roberts' clients was the Tennessee Social Club, a place he helped rebrand as a church to get around Metro regulations.

Rogers said his daughter often went with Roberts to the club.

"I don't understand how any man who is in love with a woman can allow his woman to have sex with another man. That's just off the charts of my thinking," Rogers said.

Metro inspectors essentially shut down the Tennessee Social Club last May after they witnessed sex acts taking place inside.

Just days later, Marlene was found dead in Roberts' home.

But we discovered this isn't the first time a young woman committed suicide in Roberts' home with a gun he owned.

Terry Cummings said his daughter, 29-year-old Amy Durard, died in the same house four years ago, in what he said are remarkably similar circumstances.

"I'm very sorry that another woman has lost her life, because if I could have stopped it four years ago this wouldn't have happened to her," Cummings said.

Cummings said he always questioned why Roberts took in his troubled daughter.

He said the huge age difference was not his biggest concern.

It was the sex clubs.

[...]

US death tied to Jakarta scandal

By Taylor McDonald - 2017-08-15


Indonesia's anti-corruption agency said Marliem's death would not derail its investigation [Reuters]

An American witness in a US$173 million Indonesian corruption probe linked to a national electronic identity card system reportedly told witness-protection officials he was worried about his safety weeks before his alleged suicide in the US.

Johannes Marliem, 32, whose US-based company had a contract to produce the identity cards, supposedly shot himself in the head after a standoff with police that involved hostages in Los Angeles.

Police were called last Wednesday to a West Hollywood home, where an armed man was said to be holding two people hostage. A woman and child reportedly left the house unharmed later that evening.

Los Angeles SWAT officers found Marliem’s body inside his home more than nine hours after the standoff began.

Police reports suggest Marliem had taken his wife and child hostage and then shot himself.

The Los Angeles coroner described his death as a “self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head”.

Marliem made contact with Indonesia’s Witness Protection Agency (LPSK) last month and told reporters that he had digital recordings linking politicians to the scandal.

“He said he was rather scared because he had 500GB of evidence,” said LPSK deputy chairman Hasto Atmojo Suroyo.

He said Marliem was offered protection last month but had not formally applied for it. “He asked for clarification on how to apply. But then he suddenly died,” Suroyo said.

Marliem’s firm, PT Biomorf Lone Indonesia, won the contract to supply automated fingerprint identification technology. He was mired in a case dating back to 2009, and involving claims that between US$5,000 and US$5.5 million, raised from marking up the costs of the identity-card programme, were divided inside the parliamentary precinct.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has named Indonesian Speaker Setya Novanto, who also leads Indonesia’s second-biggest political party Golkar, as a suspect in the scandal and is targeting at least 37 people, including MPs and civil servants.

Novanto, who was hailed by Donald Trump as one of Indonesia’s most powerful men, has denied any wrongdoing over the alleged theft of US$173 million.

KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah confirmed Marliem was a key witness in the investigation into the embezzlement of more than a third of the funds earmarked for the introduction of the identity-card system.

He said Marliem’s death would not stop the investigation.

“Even before we decided to charge Setya Novanto, we obtained sufficient evidence, from confiscated documents to testimonies of some 40 witnesses,” he said, adding that his staff had questioned Marliem twice in the US.

Vice president of scandal-ridden KAI found dead

2017/09/21

SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- A senior official at Korea Aerospace Industries Co. (KAI) was found dead Thursday in an apparent suicide, police said, amid a widening probe into an array of suspected irregularities at the aircraft maker.

Police said Kim In-sik, KAI vice president in charge of its overseas business, was found hanged at his home in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, southeast of Seoul, at around 8:40 a.m.

Kim's body was reportedly discovered by a company employee who went to his apartment as he was not able to reach Kim by phone. Kim did not turn up at work.

Police said they found a suicide note at the scene, in which Kim wrote about his feelings of regret over the current situation and that he had "tried to do his best." He apparently apologized to the company and its employees for causing concern. The rest of the letter was written for his family.

The former Air Force brigadier general began his career at KAI as the head of the United Arab Emirates office in 2006 and mainly took charge of KAI's overseas supply deals, including the sale of the FA-50 light attack aircraft to Iraq.

The FA-50 is one of the projects involved in the suspected price manipulation by KAI officials.


A composite photo of Kim In-sik and KAI headquarters (Yonhap)

The Seoul prosecutors' office said Kim was not on the list of those to be questioned over the scandal.

The investigation into corruption at KAI has widened to include its former chief Ha Seong-yong, who has been detained over his alleged involvement in a series of malpractices from accounting fraud to illicit hiring. Prosecutors said earlier they plan to file for an arrest warrant for Ha later in the day.

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/ ... ua-report/

February 7, 2018
DOJ ordered police notes contradicting the suicide narrative for Danny Casolaro be sealed

Handwritten notes from the Martinsburg Police Department catch the Bua Report in a major lie about the mysterious death of a journalist

Written by Emma Best
Edited by JPat Brown

An examination of the original handwritten police notes about the death of journalist Danny Casolaro contradict the official claims and conclusions of the Justice Department and the Special Counsel investigation led by Judge John Bua. The police notes, originally seized by the federal government and allegedly still under seal, undermine the narrative that Danny Casolaro committed suicide, and appear to provide corroboration that someone took his briefcase containing many of his notes and papers at the time of his death.



MuckRock previously filed a FOIA request with Martinsburg Police Department for records relating to the death of Danny Casolaro, including notes, photographs and autopsy reports. A response dated ten days later, but not received until nine months later (the statutory time limit is five business days), denied the request by referring to the federal government seizing jurisdiction and custody of all documents. This is consistent with previous reports from the Berkeley County Prosecutor’s office that the materials were sealed. Although the records still being apparently sealed, copies were obtained through a combination of Special Access Reviews, visits to different archives, and the cooperation of a number of people who were involved in the case.



In some instances, the Bua Report simply seems to leave out relevant information. One passage in the Bua Report describing threats against Casolaro, for instance, completely misstates the facts as presented in the original police notes. The Bua Report then contends that Casolaro fabricated the death threats while planning to commit suicide because he wanted to make people think he was murdered.



This contention is not only unsupported by the original documentation, it’s contradicted by it. According to the Bua Report, Casolaro began reporting death threats “during the last few weeks of his life,” with only a single report of a death threat being offered by Olga Mokros the Monday before his death. According to the Bua Report, “She could not recall any other specific occasions on which Mr. Casolaro received such a call, even though she was at his house nearly every day.” This statement is directly contradicted by the notes of the police interview with her, in which she said that she had answered the Casolaro phone to hear threats to kill Danny and “cut him into pieces.” According to the notes, this was “months” before his death.



The notes go on to describe a death threat against Danny that she received around the time of his death, which may be the same call described in the Bua Report. It’s not immediately clear if the false statement in the Bua Report is the result of a deliberate decision to ignore the police notes, or if the Special Counsel was denied access to them or not properly informed of their contents.

If this were the only error, or even the worst error, it might do little to undermine the Bua Report’s conclusions regarding Casolaro’s death. It is neither.

Arguably the worst error in the Bua Report is in their response to the question of Casolaro’s missing briefcase, which they concluded didn’t exist. According to the Bua Report, only one witness - a front desk employee at the hotel - thought they might have seen the briefcase. The Bua Report incorrectly claimed that “no other hotel employee recalled seeing Mr. Casolaro with a briefcase.”



Elsewhere, the Bua Report twice describes Lopez as having been “not sure” and decide that since “none of the other hotel employees recall seeing a briefcase or documents … Lopez was probably mistaken.” The conclusion that the briefcase didn’t exist is then used to undermine the statement from William Turner that he had just returned documents to Casolaro, documents which may have related to Alan Standorf, an alleged NSA whistleblower who was murdered and whose records are still withheld by the FBI due to an unidentified 25+ year old pending law enforcement proceeding.



Contrary to the assertions of the Special Counsel’s office in the Bua Report, the original police notes show that there was a second witness at the hotel who saw the briefcase: Barbara Bettinger. According to her statement to the police, Bettinger had seen the briefcase. The Bua Report describes Bettinger as an employee at the hotel, while failing to describe her telling the police she had seen Casolaro’s briefcase.



According to the handwritten police notes, Bettinger saw Casolaro on the afternoon before his death, while standing in the doorway to his room. She noted that he seemed nervous and kept looking over his shoulders.



According to the Bua Report, Bettinger was the last hotel employee to see Casolaro alive when she spoke with him that Friday afternoon.



Most relevantly, Detective John McMillen asked Bettinger “did you notice any paperwork or baggage in the room?” She answered that “yes,” there had been a “briefcase on [the] dresser, open with papers sticking out of it.” She saw the papers on the same afternoon Turner alleges he return papers to Casolaro, though the Bua Report points to inconsistencies in Turner’s retellings of this.



Bettinger signed the notes, affirming their accuracy.



As both the handwritten police notes and the Bua Report note, the police didn’t find Casolaro’s briefcase or papers, which he still had with him in his hotel room the afternoon before he died. Their disappearance means that Casolaro either had at least one unknown interaction with someone or the papers were stolen from his room after his death.

The disappearance of the papers does more than confirm the existence of an unknown player in the final hours, if not the final moments or immediate post-mortem, of Casolaro; they also provide a potential motive for his death: the removal of evidence. The most likely candidate for this unknown player is the deceased Joseph Cuellar, who had not only reportedly threatened Casolaro, but provided contradictory alibis for Casolaro’s death.

As the Bua Report notes, Cuellar had reportedly threatened both Lynn Knowles, an ex-girlfriend, and Casolaro. At the same time, Cuellar referenced Anson Ng, a Financial Times reporter who had been killed in Guatemala and was reportedly looking into aspects of the Inslaw affair. Cuellar denied this, though Knowles continues to stand by her statements. Bua cleared Cuellar of wrongdoing, asserting that witnesses placed him in Washington D.C. on the day Casolaro died, processing out from Desert Storm and into Southern Command.



The Bua Report’s reliance on these witnesses ignores the fact that Casolaro’s estimated time of death was between 7 and 8 AM in Martinsburg, West Virginia - a two hour drive from Washington D.C., which could have given Cuellar time to return before witnesses apparently saw him in D.C.



The Bua Report’s dismissal of Cuellar as a suspect ignores his contradictory alibis. According to a DOJ memo written to the Assistant U.S. Attorney, “Cuellar advised that three (3) to four (4) weeks prior to Casolaro’s death, he left for Panama and was advised of Casolaro’s death through a phone call to Lynn Knowles. Cuellar returned from Panama to attend Casolaro’s funeral.” If Cuellar had left for Panama at that time, he would have already been processed into Southern Command and wouldn’t have returned to Washington D.C. to process out of Desert Storm (nowhere near Panama) and into Southern Command (which did have jurisdiction over operations in and around Panama).



The two alibis are impossible to reconcile. To date, there is no evidence that the DOJ ever investigated the change in Cuellar’s alibi, nor was it publicly reported on. The documentation was only obtained relatively recently as part of a Special Access Review with the National Archives.

Combined with other instances in which the Special Counsel ignored or was left ignorant of relevant information about the Inslaw affair and he PROMIS scandal, these omissions and distortions raise additional questions about the integrity of the Bua Report and its conclusions, which have now been challenged on both the death of Casolaro and on the PROMIS scandal.

As of this writing, over 20,000 pages at the National Archives on Casolaro’s death, the PROMIS scandal and the investigations into the Inslaw affair remain inaccessible to the public. While the Special Access Review for all the documents continues, you can file a FOIA request for individual sections to prompt a speedier release to the public. Previously released sections can be found here. You can read the rejection from Martinsburg PD on the request page, or you can read their separately obtained handwritten notes below.

--> https://archive.org/stream/MartinsburgP ... 1/mode/2up

Gregory Korte

Six days ago, a source of mine unexpectedly emailed me a treasure trove of data. So far as I know, it was the last thing he did before committing murder-suicide.


P.S. Ruckman Jr., who went by the twitter handle @pardonpower, was a leading expert on the presidential pardon power and clemency in general.

One of the things that made him such an authority was that he had painstakingly assembled, through countless hours of work at the National Archives, a comprehensive database of every pardon, commutation, respite and reprieve ever granted back to George Washington.

That data helped give me historical context for a number of stories I wrote about President Obama's use of his clemency power, for which I received the @PresGeraldRFord Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency last year.

It was a great data set, and many times I asked if he wouldn't mind sharing it. But he said he was working on a book about the history of pardons and didn't want to release the data until that project was complete.

i kept in touch from time to time. Last year, when President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio and people argued that it was unprecedented to pardon someone for contempt of court, Ruckman sent me a list of dozens of people pardoned for contempt back to President John Adams.

Still, I was a little surprised last Wednesday, when he emailed me the entire database -- in separate spreadsheets for each presidential administration, more than 30,000 records in all. "Would want you to have this and use freely," he wrote.

I emailed him back right away, saying I was on deadline but would call him later. When he didn't call me back by Monday, I got worried. I checked his web site and Twitter feed. Then I googled him.

According to this @rrstar story, police found his body -- and that of his two boys, aged 12 and 14 -- at his home on Saturday, three days after the emails. The boys hadn't been in school since Wednesday.

I called the Winnebago County Sheriff, in case the emails help to establish his intent, or the timeline. Obviously, there are a lot of questions left unanswered, and the investigation continues.

I never met him in person, and can't presume to know what went so terribly wrong. I do know he was proud of his sons. Last year, he sent me a Youtube video of his 7th grader playing the National Anthem on guitar at a high school basketball game.

I also got the impression that his passion for the subject of pardons was rooted in fundamental Christian values of redemption and forgiveness. Tonight I'm struggling to reconcile those ideals with such an unpardonable act.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the data. He did important work, which now seems tainted. I do pray that God has mercy on his soul, and especially on the souls of his innocent sons.

Thank you for listening.
https://twitter.com/gregorykorte/status ... 6859131905

Progressive South Korean politician found dead in apparent suicide

Posted : 2018-07-23 18:19
Updated : 2018-07-23 22:16

By Lee Suh-yoon



A progressive politician was found dead in the grounds of an apartment complex in Seoul, Monday, in an apparent suicide, amid an investigation into his alleged acceptance of illegal political funds.

The body of Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, 61, floor leader of the minor opposition Justice Party, was found at the apartment building where his mother and brother lived, located in Jung-gu, central Seoul, according to police.

A security guard at the apartment found the body at 9:38 a.m. after hearing a loud noise. Roh's coat ― with his purse, business cards and a letter ― was found next to a window in the staircase between the 17th and 18th floors.

In his letter, Roh admitted to accepting 40 million won ($35,200) from a group at the center of an online opinion-rigging scandal involving a power blogger named Druking; but said he neither gave nor promised any political favors in return. He also apologized to his family.

"It was a foolish choice and shameful decision," he wrote in the note. "I should take responsibility for it."

He also apologized to his Justice Party for causing trouble.

"I can no longer face Chairwoman Lee Jeong-mi and other beloved party members," he wrote. "I stop here but I hope my party continues to move forward."

Police said they would not conduct an autopsy as the family did not want it and the cause of the death was clear, adding the letter was in his own handwriting.

A memorial altar was set up for him at Severance Hospital in western Seoul. The funeral will be held Friday, with the party chairwoman taking charge of organizing it.

Roh, a former labor rights activist and popular left-wing icon, had spoken out frequently against corruption and social injustice.



However, he fell under the scrutiny of a special counsel investigating the online opinion-rigging scandal where Druking and his team members allegedly manipulated online comments to influence the presidential elections last year.

One of Druking's team members, a lawyer surnamed Do, was recently called in for questioning under suspicions of transferring 40 million won in illicit political funds to Rep. Roh in 2016. The two attended the same high school.

Roh denied all allegations before his death. Last Thursday, during a visit to Washington, D.C., Roh told reporters he "never received any illegal political funds" and was happy to "fully comply with the ongoing investigation to reveal the truth."

But in his letter, he admitted to accepting money.

The prosecution seemed stunned to hear of Roh's death. In a nationally televised address, Huh Ik-bum, the independent counsel investigating the allegation, expressed his condolences.

"A person who made an important mark on modern political history and the nation's legislative activity passed away today," Huh said, wearing a black necktie. "I will talk about the ongoing investigations next time, and again offer my deepest condolences to Rep. Roh and his family."

Fellow lawmakers also expressed shock over the news.

"I'm so shocked that I don't really want to talk," Rep. Hong Young-pyo, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters. "Roh gave his all to work for the weakest members of society."

Rep. Kim Kwan-young, floor leader of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party, said Roh showed no signs of making such a radical choice during the recent trip by party floor leaders to Washington, D.C., to discuss North Korea issues.

"I'm extremely shocked," Kim said. "When the five of us had a drink together Friday night, he showed no signs of contemplating such an act."

President Moon Jae-in also expressed his condolences.

"Though I was not in the same party as Rep. Roh, we worked together, in the same period of time for a more progressive Korean society," Moon said during a meeting with secretaries. "Roh, in leading the progressive bloc, contributed to broadening our political spectrum."

Citing him as an iconic symbol in Korea, Baek said, "He was the living evidence of progressive politics in Korean history as he made all-out efforts to create hope for these since the early 1990s."