Former Miryang Mayor Park Il-ho's Arrest Warrant for 'Bribery' Rejected

The arrest warrant for Park Il-ho, former mayor of Miryang City, Gyeongnam, on charges of bribery was dismissed on the 10th.

Lee Jae-won, chief judge of Criminal Division 5 at Changwon District Court, conducted a pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) for former Mayor Park, who is accused of bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

After the interrogation, the warrant was dismissed, stating, "There is a dispute over the facts of the charges, and it is necessary to carefully assess the credibility of the key evidence, the testimony of the intermediary, during the trial process."

Former Park Il-ho, Mayor of Miryang, Gyeongnam. [Photo by Miryang City Hall]

Former Mayor Park is accused of receiving 200 million won from the representative of an apartment construction developer in exchange for facilitating the project during his tenure.

Earlier, Heo Hong, a Miryang City council member, reported former Mayor Park to the prosecution last November regarding this matter, but Park strongly denied the allegations.

Park resigned from his mayoral position ahead of the April 10 general election, ran as a preliminary candidate for the People Power Party in the Miryang-Uiryeong-Haman-Changnyeong district, and was nominated, but his nomination was canceled within a week due to the prosecution's report and other reasons.