Overview
- President Lee, speaking through his political secretary Monday, backed a special probe into alleged fabricated prosecutions and urged his party to seek public input on the bill’s timing.
- The Democratic Party’s bill, introduced April 30, lets a special counsel take over 12 designated cases and either proceed with or drop the indictments, with the president appointing the counsel from three nominees.
- The People Power Party held an emergency meeting Monday and called the plan unconstitutional, with leaders pledging a filibuster and street protests as former PPP chief Han Dong-hoon warned cancellation of Lee’s cases could invite impeachment efforts.
- DP leaders say the measure is meant to verify suspected abuses by prosecutors under former President Yoon after a monthlong Assembly inquiry, which ended last week and prompted complaints against 31 witnesses for alleged perjury.
- Legal scholars and civic attorneys warn the bill creates a conflict of interest and breaks with standard practice, while the DP-controlled Assembly weighs passage before the June 3 local elections and some DP figures caution against a pre-election vote.