National Assembly receives arrest warrant bill for Lee

Politics

Published: 21 Feb. 2023, 18:31

National Assembly receives arrest warrant bill for Lee

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung at a DP meeting held at the National Assembly on Tuesday. The prosecutors' arrest warrant motion against Lee was submitted to the National Assembly. [YONHAP]

The Justice Ministry on Tuesday submitted a request for the arrest of Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung to the National Assembly.

The document handed to the National Assembly’s office accuses Lee of breach of duty, bribery and concealing criminal proceeds, as well as conflicts of interest and corruption.

Arrest warrants for sitting lawmakers must be approved by the National Assembly by a majority vote with a majority of lawmakers present before they can be sent to a court.

Lee faces being the first sitting head of an opposition party to be arrested.

Both the DP and the People Power Party (PPP) have agreed to put the motion to a vote on Feb. 27.

Lee's DP holds a majority in the National Assembly with 169 out of 299 seats.

Lee has been rallying support to vote against the motion, including pushing for the proposed “yellow envelope law," which expands the right of unions to strike and limits damage claims against unions for illegal strikes.

The law is strongly championed by another liberal party, the Justice Party.

Earlier, Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi said her party will vote in favor of the arrest warrant motion, bringing up past comments by Lee that he would revoke his immunity as a lawmaker if an arrest warrant were issued.

When Lee was campaigning in a by-election in May after losing his presidential race just two months earlier, he said a clean politician doesn't need immunity against an arrest warrant.

During the presidential race, he pledged to abolish the immunity lawmakers have against arrest warrants.

DP Chair Lee is accused of breaching his duty as Seongnam city mayor in the controversial Daejang-dong development scheme and bribery over corporate sponsorships for the Seongnam football club involving major Korean companies such as Doosan and Naver.

A motion to arrest DP Chairman Lee Jae-myung being submitted to the National Assembly's office on Tuesday. The National Assembly will vote on the motion on Feb.27. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Seeking an arrest warrant for Lee last Thursday, Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office accused Lee of taking a central role in removing a profit-sharing agreement that allowed private developers headed by former journalist Kim Man-bae to pocket 788.6 billion won ($613.4 million).

The prosecutors claimed that Seongnam Development Corporation, the city-owned developer, was deprived of 489.5 billion won in profits by Lee's actions.

The prosecutor's 173-page document also alleged Lee's involvement in a 13.3 billion-won bribery scheme involving corporate sponsorships of Seognam's football club.

The DP chair is also being investigated for sending money to North Korea through an underwear company, the SBW Group.

Lee strongly denies the accusations against him.

Lee on Tuesday said the prosecutors’ office was spinning the media to make him look guilty.

"Everyone knows just how much the prosecutors have immoderately played the media to frame me and attack me as if I made illegal profits," Lee said.

In particular, he stressed that the arrest warrant documents made no mention of the 42.8 billion won allegedly promised to Lee by the private developers, an accusation that prosecutors had previously shared with the media.

“I have searched and there is nothing on the 42.8 billion won mentioned by the prosecutors’ office,” Lee said.

The DP chair, however, did not answer questions by reporters on whether he plans to give up his arrest immunity or rumors that he might be pushing to reopen the National Assembly in March just in case prosecutors seek another arrest warrant if this one fails.

The document seeking consent of the National Assembly to motion the arrest warrant against DP Chair Lee Jae-myung signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Meanwhile, critics are pointing to some of Lee's other past interactions with law enforcement.

In his autobiography released in 2017, the DP chair confessed to fleeing from police when he was being investigated in 2002 in a false identity case.

Lee was charged with colluding with a TV producer who pretended to be a prosecutor and recorded a conversation with the Seongnam city mayor at the time.

In his autobiography, Lee said it was evidently clear he would be immediately arrested if the TV producer told the police that it was him who suggested the TV producer to assume the false identity.

He also said when he fled to Gangwon, he provided a police checkpoint with his younger brother's identity, allowed him to narrowly escape. He then got rid of his mobile phone battery.

In 2004, when he was pursued by the police for participating in a rally where a Seongnam city councilman was injured, he hid himself at a nearby church to avoid arrest.

During a lecture in 2016, Lee told the audience never to let the authorities confiscate your phone as it contains every record about you.

Yoo Dong-kyu, a former acting president of the Seongnam Development Corporation and key figure of the Daejang-dong scandal, reportedly told prosecutors that he was ordered by Jeong Jin-sang, a former Democratic Party vice chief of staff and long-time right hand man to Lee, to throw away his phone when the prosecutors’ raided his home.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]