Acting Minister of Justice: "Yoon's Detention Cancellation Unjust... Immediate Appeal May Raise Constitutional Issues"

Kim Seok-woo, Acting Minister of Justice, argued that although the court's decision to cancel the detention of President Yoon Seok-yeol is unjust, if the prosecution immediately appeals, it is highly likely to be unconstitutional.

Yonhap News

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At the emergency hearing of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the 12th, Acting Minister Kim responded to a question from Kim Ki-pyo of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying, "I think the court's decision is unjust and needs to be corrected," but added, "The reason we have not immediately appealed is because doing so could strongly suggest unconstitutionality."

Acting Minister Kim stated, "According to the intent of the decision document, it is interpreted on the premise that the detention is illegal," and added, "Whether the indictment procedure is lawful can be contested during the trial process (at the first instance)." He further said, "We plan to contest it on the merits."

In response to a question from Lee Sung-yoon, a Democratic Party lawmaker, he said, "It is clear that an immediate appeal in this matter would be unconstitutional," and added, "Looking at the 1993 unconstitutionality ruling on bail approval decisions and the 2012 unconstitutionality ruling on suspension of detention execution, the prosecutor's judgment on continuation cannot take precedence over the judge's judgment."

Regarding the criticism from Jeong Cheong-rae, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that the Ministry of Justice in 2015 argued for the retention of the provision, stating that immediate appeals against detention cancellation decisions under the Criminal Procedure Act are not unconstitutional, he rebutted, "That was a discussion from a legislative perspective at the time."

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