Concerns over the aftermath of impeachment ruling

The Seoul Central District Court has expressed strong regret Friday over groundless rumors about Judge Cho Eui-yeon who rejected the warrant for Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, saying, “It is quite the contrary.” Rumors of Cho were spreading around the Internet including “He earned the Samsung scholarship in the past and he would be appointed as the head of judicial affairs of Samsung Group” or “Samsung promised to hire his son” and the court came forward. Cho does not have a son, however. The personal information of a judge who examined the arrest warrant for former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon and Culture, Sports, and Tourism Minister Cho Yoon-sun was also posted on the web. All of such activities are carried out to pressure the court to issue warrants.

The reason why cyber-attacks on judges, who reject warrants are taking place, is the deeply-rooted distrust of the justice based on the thought of all mighty is the dollar. Otherwise, it might be because of the disappointment from the failure of the independent counsel investigation team led by Park Young-soo, which figured that Lee would establish cozy relations with the politics. However, Judge Cho made it clear that he rejected the warrant for Lee due to lack of sufficient grounds of improper solicitation and compensational relations. In a nutshell, it means a lack of evidence. People can argue against the decision made by the court and express regret. But if people make up fake stories and defame others, it is nothing more than a greave challenge to the constitutionalism, the foundation of democracy.

Politicians should also take a responsibility for such behaviors of the public as they easily denounce and take down the court all the time. After the arrest warrant for the Samsung heir was denied, the opposition party reacted emotionally without judicial considerations by saying that the law disregarded the justice and surrendered to the power of conglomerates. The judgment of the court should be respected as they rule the final decision on legal conflicts. Political leaders in high ranks must behave responsibly as they are not ordinary citizens. If they continue to blame the judiciary on the ground that its decision is not coincided with their ideology and intention, the day of establishing the constitutionalism is still far-off.

After seeing what happened after the court turned down the arrest warrant of Samsung’s vice chairman, we cannot help worrying over the aftermath of the impeachment ruling on President Park Geun-hye. It is obvious that the pro-Park faction would immediately protest against the ruling whether the Constitutional Court upholds or overturns the impeachment motion and there would definitely be countless instigations. Throughout the candlelight vigils, Korean people have ordered that even the president should be impeached according to the procedure before the Constitution if the president was suspected of the violation of the Constitution. Completely accepting the result is a true meaning of constitutionalism as well as the principle of law.