Rival parties escalate feud over acquittal of labor party head

By Tony Chang
SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) -- Controversy surrounding last week's acquittal of a
minor party chief who stood trial for committing violent acts in parliament
escalated further Tuesday as the ruling party's lawmakers lashed out at the
court, accusing it of impartiality in its ruling.
Kang Ki-kab, head of the progressive Democratic Labor Party, was indicted for
obstructing official parliamentary duty while protesting a bill on the South
Korea-U.S. free trade agreement early last year, but was declared not guilty by a
district court in Seoul last Thursday.
The farmer-turned-legislator was accused of throwing furniture in the office of
the National Assembly speaker, assaulting parliamentary security guards and using
foul language in his protest.
The Seoul Southern District Court ruled he was merely venting steam and that he
was entitled to "protest" as a party leader. Prosecutors immediately appealed.
The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee convened a meeting
Tuesday to discuss controversy surrounding Kang's acquittal, in which committee
members of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) questioned the court's decision,
while opposition lawmakers warned against problems that could arise from the
legislative body's intervention in court rulings.
"After reading the ruling, I found that it was filled with incomprehensible
logic. The content was tailored to draw out a not-guilty conclusion," GNP
lawmaker Lee Joo-young said at the meeting.
Park Min-shik, another GNP committee member, argued that most people have said
Kang's actions were wrong, and even most practitioners of the law have expressed
doubt over the court ruling.
Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers warned against the lawmakers criticizing a
judiciary decision, describing the GNP's open criticism toward the judiciary body
as shameful.
"How can the people respect the chief justice of the Supreme Court and other
judiciary bodies when open attacks are made toward them? The act of making such
serious remarks in public depicts a shameful portrait of the National Assembly,"
Park Jie-won of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said.
The DP's Lew Seon-ho, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, also said that "it is
dangerous and inappropriate for prosecutors and the media to attack the court as
having violated the law," adding that it would be a grave violation of the
independence of the judiciary.
odissy@yna.co.kr
(END)