By Kang Shin-who
Staff reporter
Conservative groups are demanding the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) be prosecuted for sending a letter to the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) in which it questioned the results of the international investigation into the Cheonan disaster.
But most lawyers say it will be very hard to legally sanction the progressive civic group.
Park Joo-min of a progressive lawyers' group said it will be difficult to file charges that it violated the National Security Law for merely raising doubts about the results.
"If the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) just collected related news articles and information for the letter, they will not face legal punishment," he said.
Lee Jae-kyo, another lawyer from the conservative group echoed this sentiment.
"The letter just cast doubts over the results of the multinational investigation team, so they are unlikely to be subject to prosecution," he said.
Right Korea and other conservative groups submitted a petition Monday with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, accusing the progressive group of violating the National Security Law with the letter to the benefit of North Korea.
The prosecution is looking into the case to determine whether the group broke the law or if their action constituted defamation of the investigation team members.
There is still the possibility that the group could be charged with defamation or obstruction of public business, if the letter turns out to be false and the group distributed it with the purpose of hurting the public interest.
The PSPD sent the letter to UNSC members via e-mail, questioning whether a torpedo attack really caused the warship to sink, and claimed no severe injuries from such an explosion were found on the bodies of the survivors or the deceased sailors.
In the meantime, conservative groups, mostly comprised of war veterans, continued to stage a rally yesterday, alleging the PSPD is supporting North Korea. They called the group a pro-North Korean organization. During a press conference, held in front of the PSPD office, six conservative groups called for an immediate withdrawal of the letter and an apology to the people.