Participants mill about outside the handball arena at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Sunday, where protests blocking access to a vote-counting site have continued for a month following a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]
Participants mill about outside the handball arena at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Sunday, where protests blocking access to a vote-counting site have continued for a month following a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]

Protests blocking access to a vote-counting site in Jamsil, Seoul — sparked by a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections — have entered their second month, with police having opened cases against 186 people in connection with illegal acts at the scene. Of those, four have been referred to prosecutors and one has been detained.

The Korean National Police Agency said in a press notice Monday that it had received a total of 83 cases involving 186 people and had concluded investigations into 10 of them across 12 case files.

Of the concluded cases, seven involved obstruction of police officers on duty and assault on ordinary citizens. Police referred four people to prosecutors and detained one. In the remaining five cases involving six people accused of assaulting civilians, police decided not to refer them after finding the charges unsubstantiated.

Investigations remain open in 71 cases involving 176 people. By charge, the breakdown is: coercion and interference with business, 5 cases involving 27 people; defamation and insult, 10 cases involving 66 people; obstruction of official duties, 3 cases involving 9 people; and assault, 53 cases involving 74 people.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency had earlier said it would "guarantee to the fullest extent citizens' free expression of opinion regarding violations of voting rights, while responding strictly in accordance with law and principle to illegal acts — including blocking legitimate access to facilities, interfering with press coverage, assaulting civilians, and groundlessly insulting police officers."


arin@heraldcorp.com