The arrest warrant for former Minister of Justice Park Sung-jae, who is suspected of taking part in the "Dec. 3 emergency martial law," was dismissed on the 15th. The court said there is ample room in trial to contest whether Park's measures at the time of martial law were illegal, finding insufficient need for detention. With the dismissal of the arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo followed by the dismissal for Park, some say Special Counsel Cho Eun-seok's insurrection probe could face setbacks.
Park Jeong-ho, the warrant-judge Director General at the Seoul Central District Court, conducted Park's pre-arrest interrogation (substantive warrant review) and explained the reasons for dismissal, saying, "There is insufficient substantiation regarding the propriety of detention or concerns about flight or destruction of evidence."
Judge Park said, "There is room to dispute how former Minister Park came to recognize illegality, the specific content of the illegality recognized, and whether and to what extent the measures objectively taken by the suspect were illegal, and these need to be sorted out through sufficient adversarial argument." He added, "Considering the degree of substantiation to date, the progress of the investigation, and the suspect's appearance history, the principle of investigation without detention takes precedence over concerns about flight or destruction of evidence."
Former Minister Park is suspected of having, after martial law was declared on Dec. 3 last year, directed the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutors' Office to review dispatching prosecutors if a joint martial law investigation headquarters was set up. He is also suspected of directing the Corrections Headquarters and the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters at the Ministry of Justice to secure detention space and keep personnel on standby for travel bans.
The insurrection special counsel determined that former Minister Park not only abetted martial law but also sequentially joined the insurrection, and sought an arrest warrant on the 9th. The argument is that Park's instructions during martial law amounted to a "subversion of the constitutional order" to justify martial law and maintain the martial-law state.
Former Minister Park denies the allegations, saying the related instructions were routine work. Appearing for the substantive warrant review the day before, Park did not give specific answers to reporters' questions such as "What was the reason you ordered prosecutors to be dispatched to the joint investigation headquarters?" After the review ended, Park said, "I explained as thoroughly as possible what I could explain."
The insurrection special counsel's request for arrest warrants for Cabinet members who attended meetings before the emergency martial law declaration marks the fourth with former Minister Park, following former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. Former Minister Kim and former Minister Lee were detained, while the arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Han was dismissed.