Lawmakers Getting Softer Sentences

Among the 299 lawmakers elected in the 17th general elections, 71 of them have been tried in court in violation of various laws and 20 of them are still standing trial.

Grand National Party Rep. Na Kyung-won, a member of the Legislation and Judicial Committee, has recently received records on pending litigation against incumbent lawmakers from the Supreme Court. According to the information, 48 lawmakers were charged with breaching the election law among the general election elected. In addition, 14 were charged with involvement in illegal political funds and 11 with accepting briberies or defamation.

Two lawmakers have been charged with more than one charge. One in every four lawmakers has gone on trial.

The analysis on the records shows that the practice of sentencing 800,000 won fine or delaying trial, which was pointed out as typical examples of paternalism in court, is still prevalent when trying incumbent lawmakers.

Lawmakers lose their seat if sentenced with a fine of over one million won for violation of the election law. However, most of the lawmakers who broke the campaign law were sentenced with a fine of less than one million. 70.8 percent, or 34 out of 48 lawmakers who infringed the law, were sentenced with a fine of between 500,000 and 800,000 won.

“Many candidates violated the election law because the court has not given strict rulings,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun said in May, demanding more strong rulings.

The Supreme Court declared that it would conclude election violation cases in less than two months from the date the case is filed for each of the first, second and the third trial. However, nine trials took more than a year from the dates the cases were filed to final judgments.

Lawmakers lose their seats if they are sentenced with imprisonment or a heavier penalty. However, eight lawmakers who received a sentence of confinement could protract the trial over a year before they get the irrevocable judgment from the Supreme Court.

Rep. Lee Ho-woong of the Uri Party was sentenced in January 2005 at the first trial to 8 months in jail and a stay of execution for two years, along with a fine of 150 million won. However, he is still standing on trial. The case first started 20 months ago, and half of his tenure has already passed.

Rep. Kim Hong-il of the Democratic Party was also sentenced in January 2005 to 2 years in prison, a stay of execution for three years, along with a fine of 15 million won on charges of taking money in return for influence-peddling. However, he has been also standing on trial for 20 months.

The fairness of rulings for similar cases between ruling and opposition lawmakers was also questioned. Rep. Bae ki-sun of the Uri Party and Kang Shin Seong-il, former lawmaker of the Grand National Party, were both indicted without physical detention on charges of taking bribes of hundreds of million won from advertising firms during the 2004 Daegu Summer Universiade. Bae was sentenced to 5-year imprisonment at the second trial in this February and is still acting as a lawmaker. Meantime, Kang has been serving a prison term since February last year.

jkmas@donga.com