Prosecutors file appeal in election law violation case against DP chief

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Prosecutors file appeal in election law violation case against DP chief

Published: 22 Nov. 2024, 18:19

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at a meeting of senior party officials at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

Prosecutors said Friday that they have filed an appeal in an election law violation case against liberal Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, who has also challenged the suspended one-year prison sentence from the first trial.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which sought a two-year prison term for Lee, cited the length of Lee’s sentence, factual problems and misapplication of the law in the initial trial ruling as its reasons for filing an appeal.

The previous day, the DP leader also filed an appeal in the case.

On Nov. 15, the Seoul Central District Court handed Lee a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after finding him guilty of making false statements during his last presidential run in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

Under Korean law, any lawmaker convicted and sentenced by a court, including those with suspended sentences, is disqualified from holding office.

If Lee's suspended prison sentence is finalized, or if he receives a fine exceeding 1 million won ($710), he will be barred from running for public office for the next five years, including in the 2027 presidential election.

Lee was indicted for violating the election law after he claimed in a December 2021 interview that he did not know Kim Moon-ki, a senior official at a publicly owned company involved in a controversial development project in Daejang-dong, Seongnam, where Lee served as mayor from 2010 to 2018.

Kim was found dead later that month while under investigation for his role in the Daejang-dong scandal, in which small investment firms secured disproportionately large profits from relatively minor stakes in the project.

Lee was also accused of making false statements during a state audit in October 2021 while serving as Gyeonggi governor.

During the audit, he alleged that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had pressured him to rezone the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyeon-dong, Seongnam.

The land was subsequently developed into apartment complexes by a private firm, leading to allegations that Lee rezoned the site to grant preferential treatment to the developer.

The court found both statements to be lies intended to bolster Lee’s candidacy in the presidential election, but ruled him legally guilty only in connection with the comment about the Baekhyeon-dong land development.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]