This week will see some key developments in the scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidante Choi Soon-sil. Choi and other suspects will go through court hearings after which some of them will be indicted.
The Constitutional Court deliberating Park’s impeachment will also hold hearings this week as the top court is trying to make a ruling before its acting president Lee Jung-mi retires March 13.
The independent counsel team is also trying to beat the clock as the Feb. 28 deadline for its investigation is fast approaching. This week, the team tackles two issues, which, by and large, could determine the overall success of the special probe.
The first one is the special prosecutor’s plan to personally question the president. Park, who has already reneged on her promise to be interrogated by the state prosecution, has also been evasive about the independent counsel’s questioning.
The team should remain resolute -- and at the same time flexible about matters such as the place and promise of confidentiality -- on grilling Park.
The second one concerns Samsung Group’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong, who the team seeks to charge with bribery charges. Lee, whose group provided money to organizations controlled by Choi and her daughter and niece, was questioned by investigators Monday.
It was the second time Lee has been questioned by the special prosecutor’s team, which failed to secure an arrest warrant for him after the first interrogation last month.
At the time, the court said the independent counsel team did not secure enough evidence to link the Samsung-offered money to the alleged government favors given to the conglomerate.
Despite the court’s rejection of a detention warrant for Lee, the special prosecutor’s team kept digging into the allegations that Samsung’s money was given in return for government favors regarding the merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, as well as other stock deals investigators suspect were aimed at solidifying Lee’s control of the conglomerate.
Since the court’s rejection of Lee’s arrest warrant, the antitrust watchdog and the financial regulator have been added to the investigation over Samsung SDI’s selling of Samsung C&T shares -- part of the Samsung Group’s efforts to address its cross-shareholding problems -- and the stock listing of Samsung Biologics.
There should be no problem with whatever the team does -- questioning Lee along with other senior Samsung executives and charging them -- if investigators have obtained enough evidence to do so.
But it should be a cause for concern if the team’s latest action against Lee is the result of no more than its undue obsession with busting the heir apparent of the nation’s top conglomerate.
Indeed, no one should be above the law and if Lee or Samsung did breach the law, they should receive due punishment. But one cannot help but suspect that the special prosecutor’s team is focusing too much on putting Lee into custody.
That is probably because indicting Lee would help snare Park on bribery charges, which would be much heavier than the abuse of power and coercion made by the state prosecution. The team may also feel the heat from the anti-Park protesters who demand the arrest of both Park and Lee.
Barring an unexpected turn of events, the team of independent counsel Park Young-soo is to end its investigation at the end of this month. The counsel and his assistants may well think they are running against the clock.
The justices of the Constitutional Court are seen as being as impatient as the special counsel because, following the retirement of its former chief Park Han-chul last month, Lee Jung-mi is set to step down in four weeks.
But what they should not forget is that their mission is to find out whether Park violated the Constitution and other laws serious enough to be removed from office. This is the core issue that should be dealt with by the independent counsel and the Constitutional Court.
