President Lee 's trials suspended

[Anchor]

The Seoul High Court has interpreted today (June 9) that if a person is elected president, any ongoing trials against them will be suspended.

There is growing interest in whether other courts handling President Lee's cases will make the same decision.

Reporter Shin Hyun-wook reports.

[Report]

The court for the public election law violation retrial has postponed the trial, citing Article 84 of the Constitution as the basis.

This article states that the president shall not be subject to criminal prosecution while in office, except in cases of insurrection or treason.

During the last presidential election period, there were differing opinions in both the political and legal circles regarding whether this provision included ongoing criminal trials in addition to new indictments.

In this context, the court's announcement of a future date without specifying the next date, stating it was a 'measure under Article 84 of the Constitution,' marks the first judgment that 'prosecution' includes criminal trials.

Attention is also focused on the remaining four trials involving the president.

These include the first trial for the 'Daejang-dong' case scheduled for the 24th of this month, the second trial for 'witness tampering' which has not yet been scheduled, and the trials for 'misuse of corporate cards' and 'remittance to North Korea by Ssangbangwool' which have preparation dates set for next month.

The Supreme Court maintains that whether the trials will proceed is up to the judgment of individual courts.

[Kwak Gyu-taek/Member of the People Power Party/April/Legislation and Judiciary Committee: "(How can the Supreme Court) interpret and give instructions on how to conduct the trial?"]

[Cheon Dae-yeop/Director of the Court Administration Office/April/Legislation and Judiciary Committee: "It cannot."]

[Kwak Gyu-taek/Member of the People Power Party/April/Legislation and Judiciary Committee: "So ultimately, each judge has to decide how to proceed, right?"]

[Cheon Dae-yeop/Director of the Court Administration Office/April/Legislation and Judiciary Committee: "Given the current structure, it seems that is the only way."]

If a proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act that suspends criminal trials being conducted before a president's election passes the National Assembly, all criminal trials involving President Lee will effectively be suspended during his term, regardless of the court's judgment.

This is KBS News, Shin Hyun-wook.