SEOUL– The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) claimed Wednesday the prosecution’s move to consider seeking an arrest warrant for party leader Lee Jae-myung is an attempt to overshadow stock manipulation allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.
Rep. Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the DP, made the remark a day after prosecution officials said they will soon decide whether to seek an arrest warrant for Lee over a corruption scandal surrounding a development project in Daejang-dong in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, launched when Lee was mayor.
Lee, who has undergone two rounds of questioning over the case, has rejected all allegations.
The prosecution’s move came after a court dismissed charges against a main player in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case allegedly involving the first lady, citing the expiration of the statute of limitations, and acquitted two people accused of playing the role of financiers.
The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol said the ruling showed that Kim, who was accused of being a financier in the scheme, is innocent, while the DP said it will seek an independent counsel investigation into the allegations.
“Talk of the prosecution seeking an arrest warrant for Chairman Lee cannot but be viewed as an attempt to dilute public criticism boiling” over the stock manipulation case and a separate bribery case in which a former lawmaker, previously affiliated with the ruling party, was acquitted, Park said.
“Is there concern that the incumbent leader of the No. 1 opposition party, who was also a leading presidential candidate, could flee or destroy evidence?” he said, denouncing the prosecution’s considering of an arrest warrant for Lee.
Lee, meanwhile, called for special counsel investigations into the stock manipulation case allegedly involving the first lady and the bribery allegations involving the former lawmaker.
“A fair and neutral special counsel investigation is the only way to end the selective order of law and biased double standard of the privileged administration of Yoon Suk Yeol,” the opposition leader said in the meeting.
“There is criticism that equality in law has gone missing in the Yoon Suk Yeol administration,” he said. “Suspicions will only tag along with the regime if it continues to reject a special counsel investigation. A special counsel investigation is necessary for its sake.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency