By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Two judges-turned-lawyers were named as candidates for the independent counsel to probe President-elect Lee Myung-bak's alleged involvement in a financial scam. They are Chung Ho-young, a former Seoul High Court head, and Lee Heung-bok, former chief of the Seoul Central District Court.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Lee Yong-hoon recommended the two to President Roh Moo-hyun, Thursday, and one will be appointed by Monday.
The chief justice first originally planned to pick one from former prosecutors but end up with two former judges as all former prosecutors refused to take the position, a court official said.
Chung was also the head of district courts in Chuncheon and Daejeon and the high courts in Daejeon, while Lee was appointed to lead the high courts in Busan and Daejeon.
The special prosecutor, after being appointed, will investigate whether Lee took part in stock price manipulation of the asset management firm BBK with his former business partner Kim Kyung-joon for up to 40 days. The probe will also focus on whether he laundered money and falsely reported his personal assets to the authorities.
This is the first time in Korea for a president-elect to be the target of a criminal investigation.
The prosecution cleared Lee of the allegations early December, but the pro-government United New Democratic Party and other minor opposition parties passed a bill for a special counsel investigation, claiming the probe failed to reveal the truth.
In the meantime, the Constitutional Court said it will make a decision as soon as possible on a petition about the constitutionality of the special bill to investigate the so-called BBK scandal.
Six people including Lee's brother and brother-in-law filed the petition last Friday, claiming the bill, which targets a specific individual, is unconstitutional because it is beyond the legislative power that bans the establishment of a law dealing with a specific case or individual.
The petitioners also demanded the court suspend the validity of the bill until it reviews its constitutionality. The court will decide soon whether to suspend the bill or not.