Cheon Ha-ram: "Ruling Party's Request to Change Judges Is an Attempt to Exploit the Ruling Party's Power"

Cheon Ha-ram, Innovation Committee member of the People Power Party, is attending the Innovation Committee plenary meeting held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Cheon Ha-ram, the People Power Party's Suncheon Gap district committee chairman, who is close to former leader Lee Jun-seok, criticized the party's request to change the trial panel on the grounds that the presiding judge was a Seoul National University classmate, calling it "an attempt to use the ruling party's clout."

On the morning of the 22nd, Cheon appeared on KBS Radio's "Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs" and said, "There are internal rules that require reassignment if the law firm where the judge previously worked or a law firm employing a lawyer who is a relative within the second degree of kinship to the judge is involved, but cases involving law school, judicial research and training institute, or law school classmates are not subject to reassignment."

He pointed out, "If reassignment were forced, in a country like ours where there are too many graduates from certain universities, proper legal operations would not be possible. Also, if I don't like a judge, I could abuse that rule as a tool to change the judge," adding, "Many lawyers within the party or representatives from the emergency committee are surely aware of this."

There is also analysis that the ruling party's request for reassignment of the trial panel is due to concerns over the provisional injunction decision scheduled for the 28th. Regarding this, Cheon said, "Yes. If the logic of the first provisional injunction is followed as is, it would be difficult for the party to defend against the multiple provisional injunctions that have come in," and added, "It seems they are making some internal judgments to that extent."

Regarding the possibility of former leader Lee founding a new party, Cheon viewed it as low. He said, "The possibility of founding a new party is 0.1%," and added, "If (former leader Lee) is expelled and the expulsion is judged to be legitimate by the court, making it impossible for him to return to the party, he might make some kind of decision, but the likelihood itself is 0.1%."

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