Bill on Special Probe into Fabricated Indictments Passes National Assembly Subcommittee; 6 of 12 Investigation Targets Linked to President Lee Jae-myung
A bill championed by the Democratic Party of Korea — the "Special Prosecutor Act on Fabricated Indictments" (legislation tasking a special prosecutor with investigating allegations of fabricated investigations and indictments) — was passed by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee's Bill Review Subcommittee 1 at the National Assembly on the 4th. Of the 12 subjects set for special-prosecutor investigation, six were confirmed to be cases involving President Lee Jae-myung. The Democratic Party adopted the bill as its official party position at a general meeting of lawmakers before sending it to committee review. People Power Party lawmakers walked out en masse from the committee's full session in protest of the bill being brought up for deliberation. The Democratic Party plans to pass the bill at the National Assembly plenary session on the 5th.
The bill, introduced by the Democratic Party in April, is formally titled the "Act on the Appointment of a Special Prosecutor to Uncover the Truth Behind Allegations of Fabricated Investigations and Indictments by the Prosecution Service, National Intelligence Service, and Board of Audit and Inspection under the Yoon Suk-yeol Government." In its original version, eight of the 12 cases involved President Lee. In the revised version, the Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town, and Baekhyeon-dong development cases were consolidated into a single item, reducing the president-related cases to six of 12. Newly added to the investigation list — absent from the original bill — were the bribery case involving the employment of former President Moon Jae-in's son-in-law, allegations of manipulated economic assessments of Wolseong Nuclear Reactor No. 1, and the leak of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) secrets.
The six president-related cases in the revised bill are: the Ssangbangwool remittances to North Korea; corruption in the Daejang-dong, Wirye New Town, and Baekhyeon-dong developments; false public statements; illegal sponsorship of Seongnam FC; instigation of perjury by Kim Jin-sung; and misuse of corporate credit cards while Gyeonggi Province governor. The Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case, the biggest flashpoint of the parliamentary probe, became the decisive trigger for pushing the special prosecution.
The Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development scandals and the Seongnam FC illegal sponsorship are separate cases, but prosecutors indicted them together in March 2023. Additional indictments followed that October over alleged preferential treatment in the Baekhyeon-dong development, and all four sets of charges were consolidated for a first trial at the Seoul Central District Court, where some hearings are nearly complete. The Daejang-dong case involves allegations of causing 489.5 billion won in losses to Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, while the Wirye New Town case alleges illicit gains of 21.1 billion won obtained by providing private developers with inside information. Also included in the investigation are allegations of granting regulatory and licensing favors in exchange for 13.35 billion won in Seongnam FC sponsorship funds, and of steering 135.6 billion won in profits to Paul Jung, chairman of Asia Developer, in the Baekhyeon-dong project.
When the Democratic Party first introduced the bill in April, it granted the special prosecutor the power to withdraw existing indictments, drawing criticism that this would undermine judicial independence. In September, President Lee publicly requested the removal of that provision at a press conference at the presidential office in Cheong Wa Dae. Accordingly, the Democratic Party passed the bill with the indictment-withdrawal provision removed through the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. However, Choi Gi-do, an expert adviser to the committee, noted in his review report that under the provision applying the Criminal Procedure Act's rules on prosecutorial authority to the special prosecutor, the withdrawal of indictments could be interpreted as permissible until a first-instance verdict is handed down.
