Motion allowing for arrest of PPP's Ha passes National Assembly

Politics

Published: 30 Mar. 2023, 17:41

Motion allowing for arrest of PPP's Ha passes National Assembly

People Power Party Rep. Ha Young-je returns to his seat in the National Assembly after making a speech calling on lawmakers to reject a motion to allow his arrest by prosecutors. The motion passed by a 160-99 vote. [YONHAP]

The National Assembly on Thursday approved a motion allowing prosecutors to arrest Rep. Ha Young-je, a lawmaker from the conservative People's Power Party.

Ha has been under investigation by prosecutors on suspicion of receiving a 70 million won ($53,600) illegal political contribution from a South Gyeongsang provincial council candidate before local government elections held in June last year.

The motion to allow Ha’s arrest passed 160 votes in favor, 99 opposed and 22 abstentions.

By law, a sitting lawmaker can only be arrested while the National Assembly is in session if a majority of lawmakers present consent.

Ha’s party decided before voting began to approve his arrest, with 104 PPP lawmakers, including Ha himself, participating in Thursday’s vote.

Ha called on fellow lawmakers to reject the motion before voting began, arguing that “investigation while not under arrest is in line with the constitutional principles of presumption of innocence and the right to legal defense.”

But Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon argued before lawmakers that prosecutors needed to arrest Ha to carry out a thorough investigation and prevent destruction of evidence.

The justice minister also framed the request for Ha’s arrest as a matter of fairness, given the prosecution’s earlier requests to arrest liberal Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker Noh Woong-rae and DP Chairman Lee Jae-myung.

The motions for Noh and Lee’s arrests failed due to opposition from the DP, which characterized the investigations against both lawmakers as being politically motivated.

Noh is under investigation on suspicion of receiving a total of 60 million won ($47,280) before and after the 2020 parliamentary election from a businessperson in return for providing business favors.

Lee has been accused by prosecutors of dereliction of duty, corruption and bribery in relation to several development projects that took place in Seongnam, Gyeonggi during his 2010-18 tenure as the city’s mayor.

Ha’s arrest is the fourth to have been approved by the 21st National Assembly.

The current National Assembly approved the arrest of DP lawmaker Jeong Jeong-soon in October 2020 over charges of receiving illegal campaign funds, as well as that of independent lawmaker Lee Sang-jik, who was accused of embezzlement and breach of trust related to Eastar Jet in October 2020, and PPP Rep. Jung Chan-min, who was accused of accepting bribes in September 2021.

Jeong and Lee later lost their parliamentary seats following their convictions.

Lawmakers are deprived of their seats if they are sentenced to prison or fined more than 1 million won for violating election laws or campaign funding regulations.

The arrest of a sitting lawmaker has required parliamentary consent for 75 years.

A total of 66 motions for the arrest of a sitting lawmaker have been considered by the National Assembly since 1948, when Korea’s first constitution was promulgated.

Only 16 have been approved by the legislature, with 17 being rejected and 33 withdrawn or expired.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]