Nat'l Assembly passes special counsel bill on alleged fabricated indictments

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly, led by the ruling Democratic Party (DP), passed a bill Friday calling for a special counsel probe into allegations of fabricated indictments targeting President Lee Jae Myung and others amid protests from the main opposition party.

The special counsel bill passed a plenary session in a 167-1 vote, after a filibuster by the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) ended. Lawmakers of the PPP boycotted the vote.

The bill, first introduced by the DP in April, calls for an independent counsel to investigate allegations the prosecution under former President Yoon Suk Yeol had fabricated evidence or induced false testimonies to build cases against then opposition leader Lee and others.

The PPP has fiercely opposed the bill, accusing it of being aimed at canceling all indictments against Lee.

Opposition lawmakers protested outside the National Assembly before the vote, and plan to stage an outdoor rally in central Seoul on Saturday.

"This is a bill that would allow one's crimes to disappear as long as they are the president," PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said during the rally. "The trials must resume before Lee Jae Myung can wipe away all of his own crimes."

Under the bill's final version, the special prosecutor would be tasked with investigating the prosecution's indictments in 12 cases.

Six of them are related to President Lee, with the charges stemming from his time as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province, when he was allegedly involved in corrupt development schemes, illegal remittances to North Korea, and the misuse of a government charge card.

The trials involving Lee have been suspended after he took office in June last year in accordance with Article 84 of the Constitution, which exempts a sitting president from criminal prosecution except in cases of insurrection or treason.

The DP had originally sought to include a clause that would allow the special prosecutor to cancel indictments but removed it from the final version amid backlash from both within and outside the party.

Rep. Han Byung-do, the DP's floor leader, stressed at a meeting of the party's supreme council that the latest version no longer includes clauses that the PPP has repeatedly taken issue with.