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    • South Korean opposition leader given suspended prison sentence for violating election law
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    South Korean opposition leader given suspended prison sentence for violating election law

    Harry Posted on

    Kim Tong Hyung
    | Associated Press

    Seoul, South Korea — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was found guilty of violating election law and given a suspended prison sentence Friday by a court that found he made false statements when denying allegations of corruption during his presidential campaign.

    If valid, the decision could significantly shake up the country’s politics, with the potential to oust Lee as an MP and deprive him of the chance to run for president in the next election. But Lee, who faces three more trials on corruption and other criminal charges, is expected to appeal any guilty verdicts, and it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will rule on any of the cases before the presidential vote in March 2027.

    Lee told reporters that he plans to appeal Friday’s decision by the Seoul Central District Court, which gave him a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years. Under South Korean law, Lee will lose his legislative seat and be barred from participating in elections for five years if he receives a fine exceeding 1 million won ($715) for violating the election law or any prison sentence for other crimes.

    “There are still two more courts left in the real world, and the courts of public opinion and history are eternal,” he said, apparently referring to plans to take the case to the Supreme Court. “This is an unacceptable outcome.”

    Lee, an ardent liberal who narrowly lost the 2022 election to conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing. Choo Kyung-ho, chairman of Yoon’s People Power Party, said the verdict showed “justice is alive” and called on the judiciary to quickly conclude the case.

    The decision received intense media coverage and apparently attracted thousands of protesters. Surrounded by police lines, Lee’s supporters and critics occupied separate streets near the court, chanting opposing slogans and holding signs saying “Lee Jae-myung is innocent” and “Arrest Lee Jae-myung.” There is no information yet about major clashes.

    Prosecutors accused Lee of making false claims regarding two controversial development projects in the city of Seongnam, where he was mayor from 2010 to 2018, while he was campaigning as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2022.

    One of the comments cited by prosecutors concerns suspicions that in 2015, the city of Seongnam changed its land use definition to allow a housing project in an area previously protected as green space due to lobbying by private developers.

    Lee said at a parliamentary hearing in October 2021 that the city was instead “forced” by the national government to make changes to the area in the Baekhyeon-dong district. Prosecutors say there is no evidence to support Lee’s claim, which was rejected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

    Prosecutors also cited a TV interview Lee gave in December 2021 in which he said he did not know a senior official in Seongnam city’s urban development arm during his time as mayor. Lee spoke a day after the official was found dead during an investigation into a property development project in the Daejang-dong province that generated huge profits for a small asset management company and its affiliates, raising suspicions about possible corruption links between them. officials and politicians.

    Prosecutors argued that Lee lied to the public to distance himself from controversy and increase his chances of winning the election. They wanted a two-year prison sentence for him.

    The court found Lee guilty of his comments about the Baekhyeon-dong project and said it was clear that the city’s decision to change the land use definition of the area was not based on the land ministry’s requests. The court acquitted Lee of most of the charges related to the Daejang-dong comments due to lack of evidence.

    “When false information is distributed to voters during the election process, this can prevent voters from making the right choices and risk distorting the will of the people and undermining the functioning of the electoral system,” the court said in a statement. “Such actions cannot be taken lightly.”

    The same court will rule on another case against Lee on November 25. He is charged with perjury for allegedly pressuring a Seongnam city employee to give false testimony in a separate 2019 case. The testimony was intended to belittle his 2003 conviction that, as a lawyer, he helped a TV journalist pose as a prosecutor. To interview then-Seongnam Mayor Kim Byung-ryang over suspicion of corruption in 2002.

    Lee said he was falsely accused of the incident when he was running for governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2018, leading prosecutors to indict him on a charge of making false statements during the election campaign. Lee was acquitted in 2019, based in part on the testimony of a city employee who worked as Kim’s secretary and who said the mayor considered dropping charges against the journalist to make Lee the main culprit of the incident.

    Prosecutors indicted Lee on perjury charges in October last year and presented transcripts of phone calls in which they said Lee persuaded the employee to testify in court that he was being framed.

    A third and more significant case in the Seoul Central District Court involves several criminal allegations stemming from Lee’s days as Seongnam mayor, including that he provided illegal favors to private investors involved in two development projects deemed questionable.

    Lee is also on trial in Suwon District Court over allegations that he pressured a local businessman to send millions of dollars in illegal payments while trying to arrange a visit to North Korea that never took place.

    Lee, who has denied any wrongdoing, accused the prosecutor-turned-president Yoon’s government of pursuing political vendetta.

    Yoon, who has seen his approval ratings drop to the 20% range in recent weeks, is grappling with his own political scandal. The case centers on allegations that he and First Lady Kim Keon Hee exercised improper influence over the People Power Party to select a specific candidate to run in the 2022 parliamentary midterm elections at the request of election commissioner Myung Tae-kyun, who was arrested in 2022 . week.

    Harry
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