Handonghun "Democratic Party pushing to amend Political Parties Act to cover up money envelope scandal... deplorable"

Democratic Party to Propose Party Act Amendment in September
Introducing 6-Month Short Statute of Limitations
Supplementary Provisions Apply to Crimes Before Law Enforcement
Han Dong-hoon: "If Passed, 'Money Envelope Incident' Will Be Dismissed"

Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party, criticized the Democratic Party of Korea on the 2nd for pushing a revision of the Political Parties Act that would nullify the trial related to the money envelope incident at the party convention.

At the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly that day, Representative Han said, "I would like to explain something you may not be well aware of," and stated, "The Democratic Party is pushing for a revision of the Political Parties Act to reduce the statute of limitations to six months and apply it retroactively to past cases if the revision passes."

Earlier, on September 6, Kim Gyo-heung, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, proposed a bill to amend the Political Parties Act, aiming to apply a short six-month statute of limitations?similar to those in the Public Official Election Act, the Act on Elections for Public Institutions, and the Referendum Act, which have short statutes of limitations of six months and three months respectively?and to apply a three-year statute of limitations in cases of suspects or witnesses evading prosecution.

Handonghun, the leader of the People Power Party, is speaking at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 2nd. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

The current law regulating the activities of political parties closely related to public elections, such as selecting candidates and conducting election campaigns, does not have a special statute of limitations, which could lead to prolonged delays in investigation and punishment, and may cause unnecessary misunderstandings about selective investigations or prosecutions by investigative agencies. Article 2 of the supplementary provisions (Application Cases) also includes content applying the law to criminal acts committed before the enforcement of this law.

Regarding this, Representative Han said, "If this amendment passes, all cases related to the Democratic Party's money envelope distribution incident will be dismissed due to the statute of limitations," and criticized, "While advocating for a six-month statute of limitations like the election law, they included a supplementary provision to apply it to past criminal acts, effectively trying to erase all money envelope incidents."

Representative Han added, "Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, wants to completely abolish the crime of false statement that led to a prison sentence, raise the invalidation threshold for election results from 1 million won to 10 million won, and allow criminals to selectively choose prosecutors and avoid judges who convicted their accomplices," and said, "It is deplorable that such things are happening in broad daylight and without the public's knowledge."

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