South Korea Parliament rejects arrest request of opposition leader in graft probe

SEOUL - South Korean lawmakers on Monday narrowly voted down a motion to lift the parliamentary immunity of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung over corruption charges, fuelling criticism that his party abused its majority power to evade criminal investigations.

Lee, chair of the main opposition Democratic Party who lost to President Yoon Suk-yeol in the 2022 election, faces several charges including

bribery, breach of duty and conflicts of interests in a graft probe

from his previous stint as mayor of Seongnam, just south of Seoul.

Members of South Korea’s Parliament enjoy the privilege to avoid arrest, and the government requested their consent earlier in February to waive Lee’s immunity so that a court can review an arrest warrant from prosecutors.

The motion was rejected by a slight margin of 139 to 129 in a secret ballot in the 300-member single chamber, where the Democrats hold a 169-seat majority.

It needed at least 150 votes to pass.

Prosecutors said Lee colluded with a group of private property developers when he was Seongnam mayor to help them rake in profits totalling almost 790 billion won (S$807 million) in a massive public development project, while leaving only 183 million won to the city.

He also demanded more than 13 billion won from four companies to bankroll a financially unstable professional football club based in Seongnam, in return for administrative favours, prosecutors said, calling it bribery.

Lee, who was Seongnam mayor in 2010-18, has denied any wrongdoing and described the charges as political retaliation.

Some politicians accused Lee’s party of exploiting lawmakers’ privilege to sidestep investigations, and major parties of making sensitive decisions via a secret ballot instead of a transparent public vote.

“Lee promised to abolish the immunity only one year ago,” said Ms Lee Jeong-mi, a lawmaker who heads the minority opposition Justice Party. “If the Democratic Party breaks its own promise in the name of political oppression, it would justify that privilege.”

In a Gallup survey released last Friday, 49 per cent of Koreans supported arresting Lee, and 41 per cent opposed. Nearly 48 per cent of the respondents in a poll published by NEXT Research on Sunday said Parliament should pass the motion to facilitate Lee’s arrest, while 39 per cent opposed.

Gallup said about 57 per cent said lawmakers’ immunity from arrest should be scrapped for fair investigations, while 27 per cent said it should be kept to defend against political persecution. REUTERS