Home > National > Politics

Court hands former DP leader Song Young-gil two-year prison sentence

Published: 08 Jan. 2025, 16:28

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Former Democratic Party (DP) leader Song Young-gil speaks to reporters as he arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Nov. 6, 2024. [NEWS1]

The Seoul Central District Court handed former Democratic Party (DP) leader Song Young-gil a two-year prison sentence on Wednesday after finding him guilty of soliciting illegal political funds ahead of his ultimately successful bid for the party's top post in 2021.

The former DP leader was indicted in January last year on charges of collecting 763 million won ($524,000) in illegal political funds from seven businesspeople under the pretext of donations for his support group.

However, the court acquitted him of involvement in his campaign’s distribution of cash envelopes totaling 66 million won to 20 sitting DP lawmakers and members ahead of the party’s leadership election in May 2021.

His acquittal on the second charge came about after the court deemed that some 30,000 recordings presented by prosecutors could not be admitted as evidence.

Song pleaded not guilty in the case and claimed that he had no knowledge of his campaign’s efforts to win support from party members through gifts of cash.

He also claimed that the state prosecution service illegally obtained the recordings from his former campaign aide while investigating a separate case and wrongly used them as evidence against him.

His prison term is far shorter than the nine-year sentence sought by prosecutors.

Aside from Song, all former and incumbent DP lawmakers who have been accused of involvement in the cash-for-votes scandal have been found guilty.

In October last year, the Supreme Court upheld a two-year prison term for Yoon Kwan-suk, a former lawmaker embroiled in the scandal, for helping to distribute cash envelopes he had received from Song’s former aide.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]