Police investigating 139 people across 58 cases tied to Jamsil ballot-counting center protest
Woman in her 40s who cursed at and spat on officer sent to prosecutors in custody
Police have stepped up their investigation into participants in the Jamsil ballot-counting center blockade protest, now in its 26th consecutive day. Authorities have been identifying those who actively obstructed the exercise of public authority at the scene, and the first referral to prosecutors in connection with the polling-station and ballot-counting center blockade demonstrations has now taken place.
The Seoul Songpa Police Station said Tuesday that it had sent a woman in her 40s, identified only by her surname Kim, to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office in custody on Monday on charges of asking for an officer's name and then spitting on him at the protest site.
Kim is also accused of filming officers on her mobile phone and hurling abuse at them while saying she wanted to "verify whether they were really Korean police." Police arrested her on Thursday.
Police are also expanding their investigation into other protest participants. On Monday, they applied for arrest warrants for two men in their 20s on charges of obstruction of official duties resulting in injury in connection with an assault on Songpa Police Station officers on June 5, the day ballot boxes were transported to the Olympic Park handball gymnasium serving as the counting center.
A woman in her 20s was also booked as a suspect and questioned on suspicion of filming the incident, sharing the footage on social media and spreading false information.
On June 16, police summoned and questioned a man in his 30s on charges of obstruction of business after he blocked sports organization employees from entering the handball gymnasium. Authorities also plan to summon soon a woman in her 30s who single-handedly blocked People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok from entering the site with a mediation proposal — an act that earned her the nickname "All d'Arc," a portmanteau of Olympic Park and Joan of Arc, among fellow protesters.
Police are broadening their investigation with a focus on assaults on officers, obstruction of business and the spread of false information. A Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency official said Monday at a regular press briefing that authorities were investigating 139 people across 58 cases related to illegal acts at the Jamsil ballot-counting center protest.
A group of lawyers representing the blockade protesters, calling itself the "By-election Resistance Legal Support Team," pushed back against the police's investigative approach and warned of legal action.
Yoo Seung-su, a lawyer with the group, said police were "maliciously portraying all citizens demanding a by-election as criminal suspects" by announcing the number of people booked before any questioning had taken place, and added that the group would "respond with legal measures, including claims for damages."
Meanwhile, police are also reviewing whether to apply charges under the Act on the Safety Management of Firearms, Swords, Explosives and Other Dangerous Articles against a man in his 20s who brought a practice grenade to the protest site.
The man obtained the practice grenade from a trash area while serving in the military and was discharged last April. He recently joined the protest as a volunteer and, apparently unaware of the risks, was playing with the grenade when he lost it, according to the investigation.
Around noon Monday, another volunteer found the missing object, suspected it might be a real grenade and reported it to police. The man voluntarily accompanied officers to the station the same day and was questioned.
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