Justice Ministry requests arrest of DP leader Lee Jae-myung to National Assembly
The Justice Ministry on Tuesday submitted a request for the arrest of Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung to the National Assembly.
Both the DP and the People Power Party (PPP) agreed to put the motion on a vote on Feb. 27.
While the DP holds the majority in the National Assembly with 169 seats out of 299, Lee has recently been rallying support to vote against the motion, including pushing for the “yellow envelope” bill, a labor-related legislation that is strongly pushed by another liberal party, the Justice Party.
Earlier, Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi said her party will vote in favor of the motion, bringing up past comments by Lee that he will revoke his immunity as a lawmaker if an arrest warrant is issued.
When Lee was campaigning in a by-election in May after losing his presidential race just two months earlier, he said a clean politician who has committed no crime doesn’t need immunity against an arrest warrant.
During the presidential race, he made a promise of abolishing the immunity lawmakers have against arrest warrants.
DP Chair Lee is accused of breaching his duty as Seongnam city mayor in the Daejang-dong profiteering scheme and of bribery over corporate sponsorship for the Seongnam football club involving major Korean companies such as Doosan and Naver.
The prosecutors accused Lee of taking a central role in removing a profit-sharing agreement that allowed private developers headed by former journalist Kim Man-bae to pocket 788.6 billion won ($613.4 million).
The prosecutor claimed in its arrest warrant proposal that as a result the city owned developer, Seongnam Development Corporation, was deprived from a 489.5 billion won profit.
DP Chair Lee is also currently being investigated for sending money to North Korea through the underwear company SBW Group.
BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]