The National Assembly narrowly rejected a motion to consent to the arrest of Democratic Party (DP) chief Lee Jae-myung over allegations of corruption and bribery Monday.
Through a secret ballot, 139 lawmakers voted to consent to Lee’s arrest and 138 against during a plenary session of the DP-controlled National Assembly. There were 9 abstentions and 11 invalid votes.
This marks the first time parliamentary consent has been sought for the arrest of the chief of the main opposing party.
The liberal DP holds a parliamentary majority with 169 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly, while the conservative People Power Party (PPP) holds 115 seats.
National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo announced the results after a lengthy deliberation over the ballot count, and 297 lawmakers, including all 169 DP representatives took part in the ballot. The motion required a majority of lawmakers present to consent for it to pass, or more than 149 votes.
The vote count took longer than expected because of a disagreement over whether two ballots were invalid or not, according to Kim.
Kim said that one vote was counted as “against” and the other as “invalid” after consultation with the floor leaders of the DP and PPP.
The vote comes just 11 days after the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office requested an arrest warrant for DP Chairman Lee on Feb. 16 over allegations of corruption regarding land development scandals and bribery related to Seongnam’s football club during his time as the city’s mayor.
Ahead of the vote, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon appeared in front of the National Assembly Monday afternoon to give an extensive rundown of his reasons to request Lee’s arrest.
“The Daejang-dong case and the Seongnam FC cases are serious crimes worthy of arrest,” Han said to lawmakers in a lengthy and detailed 15-minute statement.
“Mayor Lee Jae-myung and certain businessmen’s political and business collusion and corruption occurred in the local government of Seongnam City, and a number of accomplices have already been arrested or indicted without detention for the same crime.”
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 Seongnam FC.
“If the claim that ‘there is no fear of fleeing’ because one is an influential politician is true, that means socially powerful people in this country should not be arrested no matter what crime they commit, and it doesn’t explain why former presidents and executives of large corporations have been arrested and tried,” Han said to the Assembly.
Prosecutors claims Lee contributed to some 489.5 billion won ($382 million) in financial damages to the Seongnam Development Corporation in a breach of trust by approving the removal of a profit-sharing arrangement for the Daejang-dong project, enabling private contractors to pocket exponential profits.
Lee also is accused of leaking information from the municipal government through close aides, playing a role in enabling Kim Man-bae, the owner of Hwacheon Daeyu, an asset management company at the center of a Daejang-dong scandal, and other private developers to pocket some 788.6 billion won in profits.
Lee also faces third-party bribery allegations during the time he served as the head of Seongnam FC from October 2014 to September 2016, attracting 13.3 billion won in corporate donations to the municipal football club from four companies, including Doosan Engineering & Construction Co. and Naver, in return for land permits and other administrative favors.
Lee served as Seongnam’s mayor from 2010 to 2018. He later served as Gyeonggi governor from 2018 to October 2021, when he stepped down to run in the 2022 presidential election.
Lee has consistently denied the various allegations against him.
The DP chief called the charges against him “far-fetched” as he defended himself in a five-minute follow-up statement in front of his fellow lawmakers Monday, ahead of the secret ballot.
“It is an unprecedented situation in our constitutional history to arrest the leader of the main opposing party without any clear charges, which will be recorded as a historic occasion,” said Lee, who issued a “stern warning against the degeneration of the government under the guise of rule of law.”
Incumbent lawmakers have immunity from being arrested or detained while the National Assembly is in session without parliamentary consent.
Lee was defeated by a narrow margin in the presidential election in March last year 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 last year.
Last 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.
On Friday, the motion was reported at a plenary session of the National Assembly.
The PPP and DP previously agreed to vote on Monday, as a motion has to be put to a vote within 72 hours of it being reported to the National Assembly.
Since last month, Lee has undergone three rounds of questioning by prosecutors over the bribery and corruption allegations.
Lee has repeatedly maintained his innocence, describing the accusations as a ploy for the Yoon administration to drag down a political opponent.
If the National Assembly had consented Lee’s arrest, a court would have reviewed the validity of the warrant.
However, because prosecutors failed to win parliamentary consent for Lee’s arrest, their arrest warrant request is automatically dismissed. Prosecutors then could indict Lee without detention to continue its investigation into the allegations. However, the possibility that prosecutors could seek an additional arrest warrant for other charges cannot be ruled out.
Earlier Monday ahead of the vote, DP lawmakers declared they would go all-out to “overwhelmingly” block the arrest motion and protest against “unjust political oppression.”
“Currently, we are facing the tyranny of a regressive prosecutorial regime that is unprecedented in the history of the Republic of Korea,” said DP floor leader Park Hong-keun in a supreme council meeting earlier Monday. “The DP will stop Prosecutor Yoon Suk Yeol’s dictatorial regime and prevent the regression of history.”
The PPP in turn has accused the DP of trying to “bulletproof” their chairman and urged Lee to waive his immunity from arrest and turn up to a court hearing for the arrest warrant.
Chung Jin-suk, the PPP’s interim leader, said in a party meeting Monday morning that a rejection of an arrest motion means the “end of the 1987 system,” referring to the 1987 democratic presidential election which brought an end to decades of authoritarian rule in Korea.
The current 21st National Assembly, which kicked off in 2020, consented to motions to arrest DP Rep. Jeong Jeong-soon, independent Rep. Lee Sang-jik and PPP Rep. Jung Chan-min while rejecting the arrest of DP Rep. Noh Woong-rae last December.
Jeong and Lee lost their seats.
Rallies were held in front of the National Assembly in western Seoul on Monday with conservative civic groups calling for the arrest of Lee.
In turn, liberal civic groups called to “protect” the DP chief, while some activists shaved their heads in a ceremony in protest of the arrest motion in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul.
The prosecution in a statement later Monday expressed “regret” over the Assembly’s rejection of the motion to arrest Lee, which it said came despite “sufficient reasons for an arrest” and the “seriousness of the crime and concerns about the destruction of evidence.”
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
