South Korea: Court begins procedure to seek Assembly consent for arrest of PPP lawmaker

Seoul, Aug 29 A South Korean Court on Friday began the procedure of requesting the National Assembly's consent to arrest Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the main opposition People Power Party embroiled in bribery allegations.

Earlier this week, special counsel Min Joong-ki's team filed for an arrest warrant for Kweon suspected of receiving 100 million won ($72,000) in illegal political funds from a former official of the Unification Church, surnamed Yun, between 2021 and 2024 while being asked to support church events.

The Seoul Central District Court said it sent a request for consent to the arrest of Kweon to the special counsel team at 1:20 p.m. Friday. The request will be submitted to the National Assembly after passing through the justice ministry and receiving presidential approval.

The arrest motion for Kweon is expected to be put to a plenary vote after Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik returns from his Chinese trip in early September. If the motion is passed by the parliament, the court will hold an arrest warrant hearing for the lawmaker.

The special counsel team is also investigating an allegation that Kweon had received a shopping bag containing cash from Unification Church leader Han Hak-ja.

In addition, the team is looking into suspicions that Yun and a shaman close to former First Lady Kim Keon Hee recruited a large number of Unification Church members to support Kweon in the PPP leadership election in March 2023.

Kweon is known to have squarely denied all charges against him.

Upon appearing before the special counsel for questioning on Wednesday, Kweon told reporters he was "innocent" of all allegations raised against him.

By law, sitting lawmakers are immune from arrest while the parliament is in session and can only be put under arrest with consent from the National Assembly.

But the privilege came under criticism that it is abused to protect corrupt politicians.

Kweon is a five-term lawmaker who previously served as the PPP's floor leader until June.

Earlier on August 27, Kweon had appeared at a special counsel's office in Seoul to be questioned as a suspect about his alleged violation of the political fund law.

Kweon had arrived at the office of special counsel Min Joong-ki at 9.47 a.m., saying that he was innocent of the various suspicions raised by the special counsel team.

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