Prosecutors have requested that a Seoul court impose monetary penalties on former and incumbent ruling Democratic Party(DP) lawmakers for their involvement in a physical altercation during procedures to fast-track a package of reform bills in 2019.

Prosecutors on Friday requested that the Seoul Southern District Court impose fines of four million won on DP Rep. Park Beom-kye and three million won on Rep. Park Ju-min, equivalent to two-thousand-700 and two-thousand U.S. dollars, respectively. 

Prosecutors also sought fines of 15 million won, or around ten-thousand dollars, for presidential secretary for political affairs Kim Byung-wook and seven million won, or some four-thousand-760 dollars, in fines for former DP legislators Lee Jong-kul and Pyo Chang-won. 

Observers believe that Park Beom-kye and Park Ju-min will likely retain their parliamentary seats, given that courts rarely impose sentences heavier than those requested by the prosecution, and that the lower threshold in general criminal cases is a prison term without hard labor.

In January 2020, the former and incumbent DP lawmakers in question were indicted without physical detention and charged with assault and injury during procedures to fast-track a package of reform bills in 2019.