Arrest warrant motion for Lee reported to parliamentary plenary session

Politics

Published: 24 Feb. 2023, 14:58

Arrest warrant motion for Lee reported to parliamentary plenary session

Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung sits in a plenary session of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, Friday. A motion requesting parliamentary consent for his arrest over allegations of corruption and bribery was reported to the National Assembly that day. [YONHAP]

A motion requesting parliamentary consent for the arrest of Democratic Party (DP) chief Lee Jae-myung over allegations of corruption and bribery was reported at a plenary session of the National Assembly on Friday afternoon.

The motion must be put to a vote in the National Assembly within 72 hours of it being reported.

The DP and the People Power Party (PPP) agreed to put the motion to vote on Monday. The arrest motion will pass if a majority of lawmakers present consent to it. The DP holds a parliamentary majority with 169 out of 299 seats in the National Assembly.

Last week, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office requested an arrest warrant for DP Chairman Lee over allegations of corruption regarding land development scandals and bribery related to Seongnam's football club.

It was the first time ever that the prosecution has sought an arrest warrant for the chief of the main opposing party.

Lee is charged with corruption, breach of duty and conflict of interest regarding development projects in Daejang-dong and Wirye, both in Gyeonggi's Seongnam, and bribery charges surrounding donations to the Seongnam FC, during his time as the city's mayor.

Lee served as Seongnam's mayor from 2010 to 2018.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice submitted a request for the arrest of Lee to the National Assembly after receiving the approval of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The DP on Friday slammed the arrest motion for its chairman, vowing that it would "go down in history as an act of dark tyranny."

"The DP will vote resolutely as there is a general consensus that the prosecution's arrest warrant request is very unjust," said Park Hong-keun, DP's floor leader, in a supreme council meeting.

The PPP in turn is urging Lee to waive his immunity from arrest as a sitting lawmaker.

Lee was defeated in the March 2022 presidential election by PPP candidate Yoon. He later won a parliamentary seat representing Incheon's Gyeyang-B district in a June 1 by-election and became DP chairman in August.

Incumbent lawmakers have immunity from being arrested or detained while the National Assembly is in session without parliamentary consent.

In a lengthy 50-minute press conference Thursday, Lee bashed the prosecution's arrest warrant request, which he said "sounded like paragraphs out of the PPP's statements, rather than a legal argument."

Lee again adamantly denied wrongdoings and accused the probe into him as being "political propaganda."

"What the Yoon Suk Yeol administration wants to see in the future," said Lee, "is to see me locked in a detention center, or a Lee Jae-myung in handcuffs."

"Some people misunderstand," Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon told reporters Thursday in response to Lee's press conference.

"Parliamentary consent is not asking the National Assembly to decide whether or not to arrest the individual but requesting for the sitting lawmaker to be reviewed in front of a judge just like other citizen."

Han said Lee said nothing new and that he should instead make his claims in front of the court.

"If there is no evidence and everything is a fabrication, as Chairman Lee claims, no judge will issue an arrest warrant," he added.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]