Court Dismisses Injunction to Suspend Lee Jae-myung, Democratic Party Leader's Duties

The court did not accept the claims of the party members requesting the suspension of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

According to the legal community on the 3rd, the Seoul Southern District Court Civil Division 51 (Chief Presiding Judge Kim Woo-hyun) dismissed the provisional injunction petition filed the previous day by 325 Democratic Party members, including Baek Gwang-hyun, operator of the current affairs YouTube channel 'Back Briefing,' seeking to suspend Lee's duties. The court stated, "It is difficult to see any urgent circumstances requiring immediate exclusion from duties before the main trial verdict," and added, "It is also difficult to consider that if the injunction is not granted, the creditors (party members) would suffer irreparable significant damage or imminent risk."

Earlier, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Eom Hee-jun) indicted Lee without detention on March 22 on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (breach of trust). However, on the day of the indictment, the Democratic Party held a party affairs committee meeting and decided to maintain Lee's position.

Article 80, Paragraph 1 of the Democratic Party's bylaws stipulates that party officials charged with corruption-related offenses shall have their duties suspended immediately upon indictment. However, Paragraph 3 provides an exception allowing the party affairs committee to decide otherwise if there is recognition of unfair reasons such as political oppression.

Accordingly, Baek and others filed a provisional injunction and a main lawsuit with the court in March seeking Lee's suspension. The provisional injunction involved 325 party members, and 679 participated in the main lawsuit.

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