Minister Cho Won-cheol said on the 3rd that regarding President Lee Jae-myung's Daejang-dong case and Seongnam FC case, it was "nothing but absurd." Cho, a former judge, is an 18th-term classmate of Lee at the Judicial Research and Training Institute and previously served as Lee's defense counsel in the Daejang-dong, Baekhyeon-dong, and Wirye development corruption cases and the Seongnam FC case.
Minister Cho appeared on the morning of the day on the pro-ruling party-leaning YouTube channel "Chwizye Pyeonuijeom" and, to a question asking, "Isn't (the president) tied to third-party bribery in the cases related to Daejang-dong?", said, "This comes from my past experience as counsel, and there may be criticism over whether this is something to say as the Minister of Government Legislation," and added, "I have never met the Daejang-dong group even once, and I have never received a bribe, so the claim itself that I was to receive hundreds of billions of won in bribes or equity is just too absurd."
Earlier, Minister Cho said at the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee audit on the 5 trials and 12 charges against President Lee, "I think all are not guilty." Regarding this, Cho said, "I have a frank way of speaking, and it reflected my usual tendency to say what should be said," adding, "I agree with the point that it was not a statement as the Minister of Government Legislation."
On the resumption of President Lee's trials, Minister Cho said, "The view of many constitutional scholars is also that the trials should be halted." As for Seoul High Court President Kim Dae-ung saying at the audit last month that resuming the Public Official Election Act violation trial of President Lee "is not theoretically impossible," Cho said, "I do wonder whether such phrasing is appropriate," adding, "It seems he was speaking in the sense that there is such an 'interpretive theory.' I do not take it as the court's position or something said in that vein."
Regarding the Democratic Party of Korea pushing to amend the Criminal Procedure Act to codify the suspension of President Lee's trials, Minister Cho said, "There is no need to amend the law. It is clear even by constitutional interpretation," and added, "Because of what the Seoul High Court president said and the Supreme Court en banc's past experience handling Public Official Election Act violation cases, it seems ruling party lawmakers are moving because they do not trust the courts."
On the bill the ruling bloc is pushing to establish a dedicated panel for insurrection cases, he said, "It cannot be deemed unconstitutional," adding, "Because appeals and final appeals are guaranteed in the normal way, it can by no means be seen as infringing the right to a trial by judges as prescribed by the Constitution and laws." He went on, "I understand the National Court Administration raised the issue of assignment, but that is not a constitutional issue," adding, "For the public, it is hard to accept that such cases were assigned to ordinary divisions handling food and economic matters."
He added, "There seems to be deep doubt about whether the court is intent on finishing within the detention period and whether there is a will to adjudicate insurrection cases, and that appears to have become the background for submitting the special bill."
Regarding criticism that the ruling bloc's proposed "trial constitutional complaint system" would be "in effect a fourth instance," he said, "I cannot agree at all," adding, "The Supreme Court keeps talking that way to block constitutional complaints against trials by any means, and the background is a status competition with the Constitutional Court."