Kim Seung-won: “The justice minister has no authority to withdraw an indictment”
Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Justice minister nominee Kim Seung-won said the justice minister lacks legal authority to withdraw an indictment in an individual case.
- He said the decision belongs to the trial prosecutor and ruled out directing the prosecutor general on President Lee Jae-myung’s case.
- Kim previously argued publicly that the case should be withdrawn, but said he had been conveying the public’s position as a lawmaker.
Kim Seung-won, nominated to become South Korea’s justice minister, said he has no intention of ordering the withdrawal of the indictment in President Lee Jae-myung’s case.
The prosecutor must decide, and I have absolutely no intention of considering the exercise of supervisory authority.
“The prosecutor must decide, and I have absolutely no intention of considering the exercise of supervisory authority,” Kim said on the 3rd when asked about the case. He said the authority to maintain an indictment in an individual case belongs to the trial prosecutor under current law.
The authority to maintain an indictment in an individual case belongs to the trial prosecutor, and I respect that authority.
Kim added that he respects that authority and does not currently plan to direct the prosecutor general. His comments marked the first time he had addressed the indictment issue since President Lee nominated him for the post on the 30th of the previous month.
The public’s position as a lawmaker.
Kim had previously spoken publicly in favor of withdrawing the indictment in Lee’s case. On this occasion, however, he stepped back from that position, saying he had conveyed “the public’s position as a lawmaker.” In January, at a news conference with Democratic Party lawmakers from Gyeonggi Province, he had described the case as an indictment fabricated by a “political prosecution.”
An indictment fabricated by a political prosecution.
About this summary
Originally published by Dong-A Ilbo in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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