Korean National Assembly Narrowly Votes to Give Lee Jae-myung Immunity from Arrest
This is likely why Lee Jae-myung ran for the National Assembly and became the opposition party leader so he could get immunity from the charges he saw building against him. What is surprising about these results is that many in his own party voted in favor of his arrest:
The National Assembly voted Monday to reject the government’s request for consent to arrest opposition leader Lee Jae-myung over corruption charges by a margin of only one vote, a surprising result that shows many of Lee’s own party voted for his arrest.
The motion was voted down 139-138 with nine abstentions and 11 deemed invalid.
The result, though in line with widespread views that Lee’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) would use its majority power to reject the request, came as a surprise because it could mean that up to 30 DP lawmakers could have cast dissenting votes.
The DP, which has 169 lawmakers in the 299-seat National Assembly, had urged its lawmakers to reject the motion, denouncing the prosecution’s attempt to arrest Lee as political revenge by President Yoon Suk Yeol against his presidential election rival.
All DP lawmakers took part in the vote.
In order for the motion to pass, it required a majority of the Assembly members to vote, and a majority of those voting to cast their ballots in favor. In Monday’s case, at least 149 votes were needed in favor of Lee’s arrest, as 297 out of 299 National Assembly members took part in the vote.
By law, parliamentary consent is necessary to arrest a lawmaker while parliament is in session.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but maybe someone in the Korean media just needs to “find” a tablet PC with incriminating evidence against Lee on it like the opposition did to impeach former President Park.
You should know. You’re from a country that gave birth to Donald Trump who is an expert at dodging and beating charges laid against him.
Different day. Same banana republic crap.
BTW, they couldn’t catch trump for jaywalking, while Lee was just protected from being investigated. Apples and oranges.
But that’s what we love about you nose-picking bots. You’re predictable.
The same can apply for Yoon Seok-ryeol. Maybe he ran for President because he could get immunity for his wife and mother-in-law.
Or someone in the media can find a “recording” of the President suggesting to the Justice Minister to ramp up the heat on the opposition leader.
Works both ways you know.
I think setnaffa once stated that the left fears Yoon’s potential. Maybe it’s the other way round and probably Yoon who fears Lee’s potential.
About 10 prosecutors had been investigating this case for about two years. They even called him for questioning three times and let him go after the questioning sessions, which means that they probably didn’t find anything to warrant detainting him.
So Lee isn’t being protected from the investigations, because the prosecutors will go on until someone instructs them to drop the cases.
The arrest warrant also isn’t a valid warrant because a judge hasn’t issued it.
From the Joongang Daily
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/02/27/national/politics/Korea-Lee-Jaemyung-Democratic-Party-chairman/20230227164607823.html
For the sake of clarity although we call it “arrest warrant” the correct translation of “구속영장” is “detention warrant”.
“Arrest warrant” translated into Korean is “체포영장”.
The prosecutors are applying for a “구속영장” for Lee which means they want to detain him in a Seoul jail for further questioning.
If that’s the case, then whatever the prosecutors have against Lee isn’t strong enough for them to arrest him and send the case to court.
detaining -> arresting
arrest -> detention