Prosecutors on Monday requested a Seoul courtroom to challenge an arrest warrant for South Korea’s main opposition determine, Lee Jae-myung, on corruption costs, 18 days after Mr. Lee started a starvation strike to protest President Yoon Suk Yeol’s overseas and home insurance policies.
Mr. Lee, the chief of the Democratic Social gathering, was taken to a hospital hours earlier than prosecutors utilized for the warrant, on costs together with bribery and breach of belief. Social gathering officers mentioned Mr. Lee had been discovered almost unconscious in his workplace, his blood sugar ranges having fallen sharply.
Mr. Lee, 58, misplaced the 2022 presidential election to Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, by a razor-thin margin and has been the topic of a collection of legal investigations since then. He has vehemently denied each cost introduced towards him, calling Mr. Yoon’s authorities “a dictatorship by prosecutors” and accusing him of utilizing the legal justice system to intimidate and discredit his political enemies.
Mr. Lee started his starvation strike — a method of political protest usually used throughout South Korea’s years of army dictatorship — on Aug. 31, first in a tent in entrance of the Nationwide Meeting constructing and later in his workplaces. He mentioned Mr. Yoon had presided over a “retreat of democracy” in South Korea.
A few of the newest costs towards Mr. Lee stem from his time as mayor of Seongnam, a metropolis south of Seoul. Prosecutors say he gave unlawful quid professional quo favors to a non-public investor in a Seongnam actual property mission between 2014 and 2017.
In addition they say that between 2019 and 2020 — when Mr. Lee was the governor of Gyeonggi Province, which borders North Korea — he requested an area underwear producer, Ssangbangwool, to illegally switch $8 million to North Korea, purportedly in an try to coax the North into coming into an financial trade program with Gyeonggi.
Mr. Lee, a member of the Nationwide Meeting, won’t be arrested until his personal get together lets it occur. By legislation, South Korean courts can not maintain hearings on arrest warrants for lawmakers until the legislature votes to allow them to accomplish that. The Democratic Social gathering controls a majority within the Nationwide Meeting, which in February put a cease to prosecutors’ final try to arrest Mr. Lee.
In current months, Mr. Lee has mentioned he would not count on his get together to defend him from arrest. In current days, get together members have requested him to cease his starvation strike, citing his deteriorating well being. Over the weekend, his political opponent Kim Gi-hyeon, who leads Mr. Yoon’s Folks Energy Social gathering, urged Mr. Lee on social media to cease fasting and focus on his grievances within the legislature.
Mr. Lee and his get together have blamed Mr. Yoon for rising shopper costs and excoriated him for in search of to enhance ties with Japan, South Korea’s former colonial ruler. They lately accused Mr. Yoon of risking public well being by not opposing Japan’s launch of handled radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Mr. Yoon’s workplace had no speedy touch upon Mr. Lee’s starvation strike or on prosecutors’ try to arrest him. On Monday, Mr. Yoon left Seoul for a five-day go to to New York for the United Nations Basic Meeting, the place he was anticipated to boost warnings about indicators of rising army cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Mr. Yoon, 62, a conservative, got here to energy vowing to reverse his predecessor Moon Jae-in’s coverage of emphasizing negotiations and reconciliation with North Korea. However he has since suffered low approval scores, with a majority of respondents in numerous surveys disapproving of his efficiency in workplace.
In current weeks, Mr. Yoon has escalated his assaults on progressive political enemies, likening a few of them to “anti-state forces” and accusing them of colluding with North Korea. He has additionally accused opponents of spreading “faux information.” Opposition lawmakers have accused him of worsening the nation’s political polarization.
