In the early morning of the 27th, the court dismissed the arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Lee Jae-myung became the third incumbent lawmaker to avoid arrest despite the National Assembly’s approval of his arrest.

According to the National Assembly Bill Information System, among the arrest motions submitted to the National Assembly since the 13th National Assembly (opened in May 1988) since 1987 when the current Constitution was established, a total of 11 have been passed.

Among them, only three people, including Representative Lee, Representative Hyun Young-hee (2012), and Representative스포츠토토 Ha Young-je (2023), escaped arrest. The reasons for dismissing the arrest warrants for these three people are all different.

Representative Hyeon’s warrant was dismissed by the court on the grounds that there was no risk of him escaping or destroying evidence and that there was a lack of explanation for the crime. However, he was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison and 2 years of probation by the Supreme Court.

The court dismissed Rep. Ha’s request for a warrant on the grounds that he confessed to most of his crimes. He was indicted in May of this year and is currently undergoing trial in the first trial without detention.

Despite the court’s decision to dismiss the warrant, there has yet to be a case where the prosecution has requested an arrest warrant again. Accordingly, attention is being paid to what position the prosecution will take in the future due to the dismissal of Representative Lee’s arrest warrant.

On the other hand, lawmakers such as Park Eun-tae (1995), Kang Seong-jong (2010), Park Ju-seon (2012), Lee Seok-gi (2013), Park Ki-chun (2015), Jeong Jeong-sun (2020), Lee Sang-jik (2021), and Jeong Chan-min (2021) Eight people were arrested after a warrant was issued after the arrest motion was passed.

After they were arrested, they were all found guilty after going through the Supreme Court ruling. Except for Rep. Park Joo-seon, who was sentenced to a fine of 800,000 won, all were sentenced to imprisonment or worse, depriving them of the right to run for election.

Meanwhile, according to Article 44 of the Constitution, members of the National Assembly shall not be arrested or detained without the consent of the National Assembly during a session, except in the case of flagrant criminals. To arrest a member of the National Assembly, an arrest motion must be submitted and the consent of a majority of the assembly members must be obtained.

Since 1987, a total of 58 motions for the arrest of incumbent lawmakers have been submitted, from Representative Park Jae-gyu (1989) to Representative Lee. Of these, 28 were voted on, of which 11 were passed and 17 were rejected. The remaining 30 cases were discarded or withdrawn due to reasons such as expiration of term.