Court Rejects Arrest Warrant for Lee Jae-myung "Parliament Rejected Consent for Arrest"

The court dismissed the arrest warrant requested by the prosecution for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is watching the vote counting process for the arrest consent bill concerning himself during the 8th plenary session of the 403rd National Assembly (extraordinary session) held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on the 27th of last month. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 2nd, Yoo Chang-hoon, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, dismissed the arrest warrant requested by the prosecution against Lee on charges including breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. Judge Yoo stated, "The suspect is a member of the National Assembly during its session," and added, "Since the motion for consent to arrest was rejected on the 27th of last month, this request has become groundless."

Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) and Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office requested an arrest warrant for Lee on charges including breach of trust under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, violation of the Act on Prevention of Conflict of Interest of Public Officials and the Anti-Corruption Act, bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, and violation of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds.

Lee is accused of causing 489.5 billion won in damages to Seongnam Urban Development Corporation by designing a business structure favorable to private contractors during the Daejang-dong development project when he was mayor of Seongnam (breach of trust).

He is also accused of leaking confidential information related to his official duties within Seongnam City or the corporation through aides, enabling private contractors to gain a total profit of 788.6 billion won (violation of the Act on Prevention of Conflict of Interest of Public Officials). The arrest warrant also lists charges of violating the Anti-Corruption Act related to the Wirye New Town development project and third-party bribery related to sponsorship of Seongnam FC.

Since Lee is a sitting member of the National Assembly, the court can only hold a pre-arrest suspect hearing (warrant examination) if the National Assembly passes a motion for consent to arrest.

However, at the plenary session of the National Assembly held on the 27th of last month, the motion for consent to arrest Lee was narrowly rejected with 139 votes in favor, 138 against, 9 abstentions, and 11 invalid votes. It failed to secure the majority of over 150 votes out of the 299 total members. However, contrary to the Democratic Party leadership's expectation of an "overwhelming rejection," it was confirmed that more than 30 members of the party defected.

Although the arrest warrant was dismissed, the prosecution is expected to indict Lee without detention as early as next week on charges related to Daejang-dong and Seongnam FC sponsorship funds. There is also a possibility that an arrest warrant related to the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance suspicion may be issued as early as this month. Separately, Lee will appear in court on the 3rd for the first trial on charges of violating election laws.

On the 27th of last month, the vote counting for the arrest consent bill concerning National Assembly member Lee Jae-myung was underway during the 8th plenary session of the 403rd National Assembly (extraordinary session) held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@