A court complaint has been filed with the Constitutional Court of Korea to examine whether the Seoul courts’ recent decisions to delay President Lee Jae-myung’s criminal trials were constitutional.
According to the Constitutional Court, four complaints were submitted to the court from Monday to Tuesday, claiming that the indefinite delays of Lee’s trials, granted by the Seoul High Court and the Seoul Central District Court, violated the right to equality.
A constitutional complaint can be filed by anyone whose basic rights guaranteed under the Constitution have been infringed upon by public authorities.
The complaints included claims that the application of presidential immunity to Lee’s retrial on charges of election law violation and a separate criminal trial related to alleged breach of trust charges over Daejang-dong development projects in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is unconstitutional.
They also requested the court to declare Article 84 of the Constitution unconstitutional.
Article 84 of the Constitution stipulates that the president cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office except in cases of insurrection or treason.
But it does not clarify whether this immunity extends to ongoing trials that began before the president took office, making it difficult to have a consistent interpretation of the law.
The constitutional complaints stemmed from a narrow interpretation, which suggests that prosecution solely refers to the act of indictment, meaning Lee’s ongoing criminal trials could legally proceed regardless of his status as president.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court postponed Lee’s hearing schedules as they found that prosecution constitutes not only the act of indictment, but encompasses all ensuing judicial proceedings as well.
“The court has rescheduled the hearing date and will set a new date later. The decision was made after considering Article 84 of the Constitution,” the Seoul High Court said on Monday, without giving a new date for the hearing.
Cheon Dae-yeop, chief of the Supreme Court’s Court Administration Office and a Supreme Court justice, previously claimed that the judges of each court will have to decide whether to stop or proceed with the trials by applying Article 84 of the Constitution to a criminal defendant who has been elected president.
The Constitutional Court reportedly assigned the complaint to a panel of three justices to conduct a preliminary review. If the panel finds the complaint legally sufficient, it will be referred to the full court session for a hearing.
Complaints can be dismissed if the court determines that the subject of the review is unclear.
sj_lee@heraldcorp.com
