Prosecutors Indict Park Gwang-sun, Seongnam City Council Chairman, Without Detention on Bribery Charges

Allegations of Providing Money to Fellow City Council Member During Speaker Election Process

Park Kwang-soon, Chairman of Seongnam City Council. Photo by Seongnam City Council website

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The prosecution has indicted Park Gwang-soon, chairman of Seongnam City Council, on charges of providing money and valuables to fellow council members during the election process for the council chairperson in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

According to the prosecution on the 23rd, the Criminal Division 1 of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Seongnam Branch (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-oh) indicted Chairman Park without detention on bribery charges the previous day.

Chairman Park is accused of providing money and valuables to fellow council members, asking them to vote for him in the election for the 9th Seongnam City Council's first half chairperson held on July 8.

The Seongnam City Council is composed of 34 council members in total, with 18 members belonging to the People Power Party and 16 members to the Democratic Party.

During the chairperson election, the majority party, People Power Party, had preliminarily nominated Councilor Lee Deok-soo as the chairperson candidate as a party line. However, after a runoff vote, candidate Park received 18 votes and was elected, leading the People Power Party in Seongnam City Council to raise suspicions of collusion between the Democratic Party and Chairman Park's side. In this process, allegations arose that Chairman Park provided money and valuables to some council members before the vote.

After receiving a related complaint, the prosecution conducted an investigation including a search and seizure of the Seongnam City Council chairperson's office, and upon concluding that the charges against Chairman Park were substantiated, indicted him the previous day.

Meanwhile, Chairman Park's side is reportedly taking a stance of completely denying the allegations of providing money and valuables to council members.

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