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

    Online Niel Posted on

    Kim Tong-Hyung
    | Associated Press

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

    If upheld, the ruling could significantly shake up the country’s politics, potentially ousting Lee as a lawmaker and denying him the chance to run for president in the next election. But Lee, who faces three other trials on corruption and other criminal charges, is expected to challenge any guilty verdict and it remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will rule on any of the cases before the March 2027 presidential vote.

    Lee told reporters he plans to appeal Friday’s verdict by the Seoul Central District Court, which gave him a one-year prison sentence suspended for two years. Under South Korean law, Lee would lose his legislative mandate and be barred from running for election for five years if he receives either a penalty exceeding a 1 million won ($715) fine for violating the election law, or any imprisonment for other offences.

    “There are still two 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 impossible conclusion to accept.”

    Lee, a liberal who narrowly lost the 2022 election to conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, has strongly denied wrongdoing. Choo Kyung-ho, leader of Yoon’s People’s Power Party, said the verdict showed that “justice is alive” and called for the judiciary to conclude the case quickly.

    The ruling attracted intense media coverage and apparently thousands of protesters. Surrounded by police lines, Lee’s supporters and critics occupied separate streets near the courthouse, shouting opposing slogans and holding signs reading “Lee Jae-myung is innocent” and “Arrest Lee Jae-myung.” There were no immediate reports of major clashes.

    Prosecutors indicted Lee in 2022 on allegations he made false claims related to two controversial development projects in the city of Seongnam, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018 while campaigning as a presidential candidate for Democratic Party.

    One of the comments cited by prosecutors is related to suspicions that the city of Seongnam in 2015 changed the land use designation to allow a housing project on a site previously preserved as green space due to lobbying by private developers.

    Lee said during a parliamentary hearing in October 2021 that the city was instead “forced” by the national government to make the site change from Baekhyeon-dong district. Prosecutors say there is no evidence to support Lee’s claim, which has been dismissed by the Ministry of Lands, Infrastructure and Transport.

    Prosecutors also cited a TV interview Lee gave in December 2021, when he said he did not know a senior official from Seongnam’s urban development department during his time as mayor. Lee spoke a day after the official was found dead during an investigation into a real estate development project in the Daejang-dong district that made huge profits for a small asset management firm and its affiliates and raised suspicions of regarding possible corrupt links between them, city. officials and politicians.

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

    The court found Lee guilty of comments related to the Baekhyeon-dong project, saying it was clear that the city’s decision to change the land use designation of the site was not based on requests from the land ministry. It acquitted Lee of most charges related to his comments at Daejang-dong, citing a lack of evidence.

    “When false information is distributed to voters during an election process, it could prevent voters from making fair choices and risks distorting the will of the people and affecting the functioning of the electoral system,” the court said in a statement. “Such actions cannot be taken lightly.”

    The same court on November 25 will rule on another case against Lee. He is charged with perjury, allegedly pressuring a Seongnam city employee to testify falsely in another court case in 2019. The testimony was meant to minimize his 2003 conviction that while he was lawyer, he had helped a television journalist impersonate the prosecutor. to secure an interview with then-Mayor of Seongnam, Kim Byung-ryang, regarding suspected corruption in 2002.

    While running for governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2018, Lee said he was unfairly accused of the incident, prompting prosecutors to charge him with making false statements during an election campaign. Lee was acquitted in 2019, partly based on the testimony of the city employee who had worked as Kim’s secretary and said the mayor planned to drop the charges against the journalist to make Lee the main culprit in the incident.

    Prosecutors indicted Lee on perjury charges last October, presenting transcripts of phone calls they said showed Lee convincing the employee to testify in court that he had been defrauded.

    A third and more significant trial at the Seoul Central District Court involves various criminal charges stemming from Lee’s days as mayor of Seongnam, including that he gave illegal favors to private investors involved in the two development projects deemed dubious.

    Lee is also facing trial at the Suwon District Court over allegations that he pressured a local businessman to send millions of dollars in illegal payments to North Korea while trying to arrange a visit that country, which never materialized.

    While denying wrongdoing, Lee accused the government of Yoon, a prosecutor turned president, of pursuing a political vendetta.

    Yoon, who has seen his approval ratings dip into the 20 percent range in recent weeks, is facing his own political scandal. It centers on allegations that he and First Lady Kim Keon Hee exerted undue influence over the People’s Power Party to choose a particular candidate to run in the 2022 parliamentary by-election at the behest of election agent Myung Tae-kyun, who was arrested at this time. week.

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