When will the majority party’s rampage stop?

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When will the majority party’s rampage stop?

Published: 27 Nov. 2024, 19:33 Updated: 28 Nov. 2024, 14:41

The rampage of the Democratic Party (DP) continues to neutralize the prosecution. The majority party plans to pass a motion to impeach three top prosecutors, including the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, in a vote next week. The DP attacks the prosecution for not indicting first lady Kim Keon Hee despite her alleged stock price manipulation. The party accuses the prosecution of committing a dereliction of duty.

The prosecution’s decision could seem improper to the DP. However, impeaching the three top prosecutors is a different matter. Would the party also impeach the judge who had convicted DP leader Lee Jae-myung of violating the Election Act? The Constitution allows the National Assembly to impeach civil servants when they violated laws while on duty. But exactly what violations the three prosecutors committed is not clear. Even if they violated laws, they should be impeached for grave crimes.

After former President Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by the conservative party in 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment as the president didn’t commit a crime serious enough to oust him from his seat though he violated his obligation to keep political neutrality. Indicting or not indicting suspects falls under the jurisdiction of the prosecution. Even if the impeachment motion is passed by the DP next Wednesday, the possibility of the Constitutional Court endorsing it is nearly nil. The DP already passed two motions to impeach two prosecutors, but both were rejected by the court.

The three deputy chiefs of the district prosecutors’ office have denounced the majority party for attempting to critically damage the normal function of the law enforcement agency by suspending the three top prosecutors from their jobs. “The people will only suffer as a result,” warned the three deputy chiefs. 33 other senior prosecutors in the same district prosecutors’ office also issued a statement attacking the DP for destroying the separation of powers.

If the three top prosecutors to be impeached by the DP are suspended from their active duty, it will certainly help put the brakes on the ongoing trials on the DP leader over his alleged violation of the Election Act and subornation of perjury, not to mention another case involving a cash handout ahead of the DP’s national convention to elect its new leader in 2021. Does the DP really want to obstruct the legal proceedings of such volatile cases? The majority party must immediately stop trying to paralyze the function of state institutions.

At the same time, the prosecution must reflect on why it didn’t apply the same standards to the case of the first lady. The prosecution must not be swayed by the powers that be under any circumstances.