Lawmaker arrested in DP cash-for-votes scandal

A lawmaker was arrested Friday in connection with a cash-for-votes scandal surrounding the main opposition Democratic Party’s (DP) 2021 leadership election.

The Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Rep. Youn Kwan-suk suspected of involvement in distributing cash envelopes, each containing 3 million won (US$2,303), to 20 DP lawmakers as part of the election campaign of Song Young-gil, who won the election and served as DP chairman until March 2022.

The court, however, denied the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant for Rep. Lee Sung-man, who is being investigated in the same case.

The two lawmakers are now independents since quitting the party in May after the scandal broke.

In May, prosecutors sought arrest warrants for the two, but the National Assembly rejected a request for consent to their arrests. By law, lawmakers cannot be arrested without parliamentary consent while the National Assembly is in session.

Prosecutors applied for arrest warrants for them again earlier this week. Youn was arrested this time because the National Assembly is out of session until Aug. 16.

“I will sincerely respond to the court hearing and proactively explain myself,” Youn told reporters before attending a hearing at the Seoul Central District Court.

Lee squarely denied the allegations after arriving at the court for a separate hearing, saying “I will do my best to explain to the judge how unjust the prosecutor’s application for the arrest warrant is and have the court make a wise decision.”