[Urgent] Supreme Court's verdict sours Lee Jae-myung's presidential bid

Korea Herald

01-05-2025

The Supreme Court of Korea overturned Thursday the lower court's decision to acquit former Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung on two charges of election law violations, sending the case back to the Seoul High Court for a final and unchallengeable verdict.
Decided by a majority vote, the top court's ruling overturned the previous verdict of the Seoul High Court, which had declared in late March that the evidence presented "did not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt."
But the top court's decision does not mean that Lee will immediately lose both his parliamentary seat and eligibility to run for public office for a decade. Lee could still run for president, as the final decision in the retrial is widely expected to take a few months, meaning it is unlikely to be delivered before the June 3 presidential election.
Lee's case will be remanded to the Seoul High Court for a final ruling, which is expected be in line with the Supreme Court's decision to hand down a conviction for the liberal presidential front-runner convicted of election law violations, since the top court did not clear Lee of the charges.
Article 19 of the Public Official Election Act stipulates anyone convicted of violating election laws who receives a fine amounting to at least 1 million won ($700) or a heavier punishment is barred from running for office for 10 years.
Lee was indicted for falsely denying personal ties to the late Kim Moon-ki, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Development Corp., during a televised interview as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in December 2021. Kim was accused of involvement in a land corruption scandal in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, when Lee was the city's mayor.
Lee was also facing charges of making a false statement at a parliamentary hearing in October 2021 that he was coerced into rezoning a property, amid speculation that he had sought personal gain in the mid-2010s as Seongnam mayor by granting permission for a property rezoning project.
Regarding his statements, the Seoul High Court found Lee not guilty of any crimes.
Lee's case was initially assigned to a panel of four justices — a conventional way for the Supreme Court to manage cases it hears on appeal — on April 22.
But Chief Justice Jo Hee-de decided to hear the case in a full court session after considering the high level of public interest and national concern.
A full-court review is one of two procedures by which the court exercises its power, convening with at least two-thirds of the justices and the chief justice presiding.
The court conducted two hearings over four days after the case was assigned to the justices. The final verdict was delivered nine days after the election law violation case was referred to the full bench.