Prosecution Expected to Request Arrest Warrant for Lee Jae-myung This Week Without Additional Summons

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution is expected to file an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, within this week without summoning him again in connection with the Wirye New Town and Daejang-dong urban development corruption cases.

According to the legal community on the 13th, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) and Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Kang Baek-shin) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will analyze the contents of Lee's second summons investigation conducted on the 10th and soon report to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. At this meeting, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok is expected to make the final decision on whether and how to file an arrest warrant for Lee, referring to the investigation team's opinions.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is under suspicion of breach of trust related to preferential treatment allegations in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development projects, appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 10th as a suspect. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Inside the prosecution, there is a shared perception that additional summons for Lee before filing the arrest warrant is unnecessary. This is considering that Lee effectively exercised his right to remain silent twice and was given sufficient opportunity to explain.

The arrest warrant is likely to be filed by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which took over the 'Seongnam FC sponsorship' case from the Seongnam Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, together with the Wirye and Daejang-dong cases. The prosecution is reported to believe that there is sufficient necessity to arrest Lee. The Wirye and Daejang-dong cases are serious matters of local government corruption, and it is clear that Lee was the final approver of the project; if found guilty in court, he cannot avoid a heavy sentence.

Lee's passive attitude during the two investigations is also analyzed to have increased concerns about evidence tampering. During the second investigation, the prosecution presented Lee with materials contradicting his written statements and demanded explanations, but Lee reportedly only repeated that "the written statement suffices." The prosecution also believes there is a possibility that Lee may have attempted to coordinate stories by contacting related parties such as Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management, who was released after his detention period expired.

The scale of profits from the project also exceeds 100 billion won, making the filing of an arrest warrant inevitable. The prosecution calculates that under Lee's approval and instructions as the then mayor of Seongnam, the 'excess profit recovery clause' was removed from the Daejang-dong project, resulting in Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, which holds half of Seongnam Green Environment's shares, receiving only 182.2 billion won in confirmed profits as dividends, while private contractors holding 7% of the shares took enormous profits of 788.6 billion won. In the 2013 Wirye New Town development project, it is also believed that private contractors gained unfair profits worth about 21.1 billion won by sharing internal information with Seongnam City and the corporation.

However, to obtain an arrest warrant for Lee, the prosecution must overcome the hurdle of the National Assembly. Since the National Assembly is currently in a temporary session, if the prosecution files the warrant, the Ministry of Justice must submit a consent to arrest motion to the National Assembly for a vote. Given that the Democratic Party of Korea, to which Lee belongs, holds a majority in the National Assembly, the consent to arrest motion is currently highly likely to be rejected.

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