Court rejects arrest warrant request for DP chief

Politics

Published: 27 Sep. 2023, 05:07 Updated: 27 Sep. 2023, 11:02

Court rejects arrest warrant request for DP chief

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks as he leaves the Seoul Detention Center in Euiwang, Gyeonggi, on early Wednesday morning, shortly after the Seoul Central District Court rejected the arrant warrant request filed against him by prosecutors. [YONHAP]

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday denied an arrest warrant request filed by prosecutors against Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung for various corruption charges.

The decision, issued around 3 a.m., came after more than seven hours of internal court deliberations following the 7:30 p.m. conclusion of Lee’s marathon nine-hour arrest warrant hearing.

In his rejection of the arrest warrant request against Lee, Judge Yoo Chang-hoon said prosecutors appeared to lack direct evidence of Lee being involved in several high-profile development scandals.

Yoo also noted there was room for dispute over Lee’s awareness and involvement in another scandal over an underwear company’s illegal remittances to North Korea.

Yoo deemed that Lee did not pose a significant flight risk or threat to evidence gathering given his high public profile and that he should be allowed to prepare his legal defense outside of custody.

But Yoo acknowledged prosecutors had presented enough evidence to back their allegations that Lee had committed subornation of perjury, or coaching witnesses to lie, and that there were reasonable suspicions about Lee’s involvement in the scandals highlighted by prosecutors.

In a statement released just after the decision was announced, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office called Yoo’s decision “self-contradictory” for allowing Lee to remain free even as the judge acknowledged that there was substantial proof that the DP leader had tried to tamper with witness testimonies.

Lee was released immediately from the Seoul Detention Center, where he was being held following the hearing, after the court dismissed the arrest warrant request against him.

As he left the facility, Lee thanked the judiciary for “making a wise decision.”

But it is unlikely that his legal woes will go away soon since prosecutors can still pursue an indictment against him without arresting him.

The DP leader faces various charges, including breach of trust and bribery related to scandal-ridden development projects in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018, as well as his alleged role in an underwear company’s illegal payments to North Korea.

Prosecutors have accused Lee of committing a breach of trust amounting to approximately 20 billion won ($15 million) against the Seongnam municipal government and public development corporation by enabling private investors and developers to reap outsized profits from the city’s Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong development projects, which took off in 2014 and 2015.

Lee, who also served as Gyeonggi governor from 2018 to 2021, is also suspected of bribery through a third party and violating international sanctions by asking underwear manufacturer Ssangbangwool to illegally transfer $8 million to North Korea from 2019 to 2020.

Prosecutors say Lee’s deputy arranged the payments and that they were intended to facilitate Lee’s visit to the North and woo Pyongyang to engage in an inter-Korean economic exchange project with Gyeonggi.

Lee is likely to point to the court’s rejection of the arrest warrant request to support his claim that prosecutors are carrying out a politically motivated investigation against him to dent support for the DP before the general election scheduled to take place in April.

Lee’s arrest warrant hearing took place after the National Assembly waived Lee’s immunity to arrest in a 149-136 vote on Thursday, marking the first time that the legislature has consented to arrest the leader of a major political party.

While the parliamentary vote on the arrest motion against Lee was conducted anonymously, the tally showed that almost 30 of the DP’s 167 lawmakers unexpectedly broke ranks to allow their leader’s arrest.

Lee has refused to step down as party leader, but the surprise defections led to Rep. Park Kwang-on resigning as the DP’s floor leader.

The party elected a Lee ally, three-term lawmaker Hong Ihk-pyo, to replace Park on Tuesday.

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