Professor Im Miri of the "Except for the Democratic Party" Column Files Constitutional Complaint Over Deferred Prosecution

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Professor Im Miri, a research professor at Korea University who was given a suspended indictment for violating the Public Official Election Act after writing a column titled 'Everyone Except the Democratic Party' before the last general election, has filed a constitutional complaint requesting the cancellation of the prosecution's disposition.

On the 23rd, Professor Im submitted a constitutional complaint petition to the Constitutional Court stating that "the suspended indictment disposition by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office against the petitioner infringes on the petitioner's political freedom of expression, right to equality, and right to pursue happiness, and therefore must be canceled."

Professor Im wrote a column titled 'Everyone Except the Democratic Party' for Kyunghyang Shinmun last January and received a suspended indictment from the prosecution. The reason was that she encouraged voting against a specific party outside the election period, violating the Public Official Election Act.

However, Professor Im argued, "The judicial disposition is an attempt to discipline expression acts harmful to the ruling party in power by using the power of law," and "My column is completely unrelated to acts that undermine the fairness of elections." In particular, regarding the expression "Let's vote for everyone except the Democratic Party," she emphasized, "It was directed at the Democratic Party, not voters," and "Even outside the election period, it was a call to fear the people as if it were election time and to treat them as masters."

Professor Im stated, "The prosecution acknowledged the facts of the case but decided to suspend the indictment considering that I am a first-time offender," and added, "This disposition by the prosecution is disgraceful to me personally, but I decided to file a constitutional complaint because it could also suppress criticism of political power and freedom of expression in Korean society as a whole."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea filed a complaint against Professor Im, claiming that the column encouraged voting participation outside the election campaign period, but withdrew the complaint due to public backlash. However, a civic group refiled a complaint against Professor Im, leading to the start of a prosecution investigation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.