Ruling party gives up on pushing bill that would stop trials of sitting president
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea said Monday it had decided not to push the so-called "trial suspension bill," which would halt criminal trials of sitting presidents.
The decision came just a day after its spokesman hinted at advancing the bill this month.
The party said that it made the decision after consulting the presidential office.
It is the right move to abandon the bill seen to be an unfair interference in judicial independence.
The trial suspension bill is a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act that the party proposed in May.
The party proposed the bill a day after the Supreme Court sent back Lee Jae Myung's election law violation case to the High Court on May 1, ruling, in effect, that a conviction should be made.
At the time, Lee was the party's candidate in the June 3 presidential election, and if his conviction had been confirmed, his candidacy would have been declared invalid.
The High Court did not set a date for reopening the remanded case. After the election, courts effectively halted his four other ongoing trials as well.
The party was going to move forward with the bill in June, but it did not call an Assembly plenary session, considering the political controversies and criticism related to the bill and that courts had stopped Lee's trials after the election.
However, some lawmakers urged the passage of the bill again after the head of the Seoul High Court remarked in the parliamentary audit on Oct. 20 to the effect that it was theoretically possible to reopen the remanded case during Lee's term of office.
Then the bill became a party issue after the first-trial ruling on the Daejang-dong project corruption scandal.
The court on Friday sentenced four private-sector developers and a former senior official of a public housing entity to four to eight years in prison. The scandal involves the private developers illicitly profiting from the public-private housing development in Daejang-dong, Seongnam, just south of Seoul. They colluded with city officials to limit the entity's profits.
The project's structure was deliberately designed to favor the private developers, causing significant losses to Seongnam Development Corp.
Lee was Seongnam mayor at the time, and had the final say in approving every important stage of the project.
His claim that he did not know about the related problems is hard to believe. Nam Wook, who received a four-year sentence, told the court that everything was done according to Lee's wishes.
Lee was indicted separately from the private developers.
The trial suspension bill will benefit only Lee. It is hard for the party to avoid criticism that it is seeking to make a law only for one person.
Article 84 of the constitution grants the President immunity from criminal prosecution during their term in office, with the exception of insurrection or treason. Some scholars view such immunity as inapplicable to trials underway before a candidate's election to the presidency.
The party recently made an array of proposals for a judicial overhaul, apparently to ensure Lee is not found guilty. It vowed to increase the number of Supreme Court justices from 14 to 26 and introduce a de facto four-trial system that allows the appeal of Supreme Court decisions to the Constitutional Court.
The party also seeks to create a new charge dubbed "law distortion" that would allow the punishment of judges and prosecutors.
Another bill gets citizens involved in judges' examinations of arrest warrants. This bill was proposed after the court rejected special counsel requests for arrest warrants in connection with their probes into alleged insurrection by former President Yoon Suk Yeol and the accidental death of a Marine that took place under the Yoon administration.
The party demands Chief Justice Jo Hee-de resign voluntarily, arguing that he tried to influence the outcome of the presidential election.
The party seems to come up with new bills each time the court makes a decision that it does not like. It should stop pressuring the judiciary.
khnews@heraldcorp.com
