Former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae, accused of participating in insurrection in connection with the Dec. 3 martial law, escaped a second detention threat.
According to legal sources on the 14th, Nam Se-jin, a Seoul Central District Court warrant judge, dismissed the warrant the previous day after holding a pretrial detention hearing for Park, the former Minister, saying, "Even after considering the additional criminal allegations and the newly collected materials since the previous decision to dismiss the arrest warrant, there is still room for dispute over the allegations, and it is deemed necessary to grant sufficient opportunity for defense while not in custody."
Judge Nam added, "Given the evidence secured to date, the progress of the investigation, stable residence and family ties, and career, it is also difficult to see a risk of destroying evidence or fleeing." Park, the former Minister, who had been waiting at the Seoul Detention Center, is expected to head home following the dismissal of the arrest warrant.
The special counsel sought a detention warrant for Park, the former Minister, once on the 9th of last month, but on the 15th the court dismissed the warrant, saying there was room to dispute the degree of Park's awareness of illegality and the illegality of the measures Park took. Afterward, the special counsel added criminal facts through additional searches and seizures and supplementary questioning of related parties and Park, the former Minister, and refiled for a detention warrant on the 11th.
After last month's warrant dismissal, the special counsel is understood to have recovered and secured a file titled "regarding abuse of authority document" during the forensic examination of mobile phones belonging to Park, the former Minister, and others. The document is said to state that the National Assembly is abusing its powers through "legislative dictatorship," pointing out the Democratic Party of Korea's abuse of legislative power and impeachment power and the abuse of budget review power. The special counsel is said to have added to the abuse of authority charge the allegation that the Ministry of Justice, under instructions from Park, the former Minister, drafted a document providing a rationale to justify martial law.
Park, the former Minister's side, maintained in the warrant hearing that there were no unlawful instructions. They explained that documents such as the "regarding abuse of authority document" merely organized the situation at the time to answer expected questions from the National Assembly and were not intended to rationalize martial law.
With both attempts to secure custody coming to nothing, the special counsel team is expected to indict Park, the former Minister, without detention. There are also projections that the remaining insurrection case investigation will inevitably be hindered.