![People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok speaks during an on-site meeting of the party’s 최고위원회 in front of the fountain at the Sarangchae near Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on May 7. Party leaders criticized problems they see in a Democratic Party-backed special counsel bill over alleged manipulated investigations and indictments under the Yoon Suk Yeol government. [Photo=Yonhap]](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2026/05/07/20260507110755380874.jpg)
The party said indictment cancellations would go beyond “erasing Lee Jae-myung’s crimes” and amount to “the last tollgate on the road to dictatorship.” It also urged that five trials involving Lee be resumed.
Party leaders, including Jang Dong-hyeok, spoke at the meeting held in front of the fountain at the Sarangchae near Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul. Jang said, “In Lee Jae-myung’s eyes inside Cheong Wa Dae, he can’t see the economy, people’s livelihoods, diplomacy or security — anything. Right now, Lee is thinking only about not going to prison.”
Jang cited allegations including illegal remittances to North Korea, the Daejang-dong scandal, perjury, misuse of corporate card funds and election law violations, calling them “clear and shameless crimes” that he said Lee could not avoid facing. He claimed Lee was trying to “erase his crimes altogether by appointing a special counsel himself.”
“In short, he wants to use a special counsel to take the indictment from the judge and have Lee Jae-myung tear it up with his own hands,” Jang said, adding, “He seems afraid of going to jail, but not afraid of the public at all.”
Jang said, “The moment criminal Lee Jae-myung tears up the indictment with his own hands, an all-powerful dictatorship will begin in earnest,” and warned of harsher pressure on the opposition and the media. He also called the upcoming local elections a vote to stop what he described as “Lee Jae-myung’s dictatorship.”
Jang also said he opposed a constitutional amendment proposal scheduled for a vote at the National Assembly plenary session that day, calling it a political maneuver to extend Lee’s rule. He said that if Lee wants a constitutional revision, Lee should first declare he will not seek another term.
Jang urged the immediate withdrawal of the special counsel bill tied to indictment cancellations and called for the repeal of laws he described as unconstitutional. “They drafted a constitutional amendment to suit their tastes, introduced it first, and now say they want discussions — that itself is a dictatorial idea,” he said.
Floor leader Song Eon-seok also criticized the special counsel measure, calling it an unprecedented “self-pardon bill” that would mobilize state power to erase Lee’s alleged criminal suspicions. “If he is truly confident, as he says, there is no reason to avoid trial,” Song said.
Song added that five trials involving Lee — including cases tied to Daejang-dong, Baekhyeon-dong, Ssangbangwool-related remittances to North Korea, and violations of the Public Official Election Act — “should be resumed immediately.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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