Prosecutors on Friday sought a two-year jail sentence for Lee Jae-myung, chief of the primary opposition Democratic Celebration, round two years after he was indicted for making false statements throughout the 2022 presidential election marketing campaign.
Within the last listening to on the Seoul Central District Court docket, prosecutors urged the courtroom to impose the sentence, accusing Lee of violating the Public Official Election Act.
“The defendant repeatedly lied to the general public throughout the twentieth presidential election in an try and safe the presidency, making this a very grave matter,” the prosecutors said, emphasizing that Lee’s false statements, delivered via broadly broadcast platforms, had a “substantial affect on voters’ choices.”
Prosecutors additional underscored that “it’s essential to impose strict punishment on anybody who distorts voter selection via falsehoods, no matter their standing or place, to uphold the constitutional values of election equity and democracy.”
Lee was indicted in September of 2022 on costs of creating false statements throughout the 2022 presidential marketing campaign a few high-profile land growth undertaking pursued by the Seongnam metropolis authorities throughout his time period as mayor from 2014 to 2017.
Upon arriving at courtroom for the closing listening to of his first trial, Lee accused prosecutors of fabricating the costs towards him.
“All these affairs will go down in historical past, and the general public will resolve for themselves,” Lee advised reporters, surrounded by Democratic Celebration lawmakers who got here to help him on the listening to. “The courtroom, the final bastion of human rights and democracy, will appropriately decide the reality of the case and attain a simply conclusion,” Lee added.
As the primary of 4 authorized battles Lee is at present dealing with, this trial’s final result is especially vital, with the potential to affect his political management and form the broader political panorama in South Korea.
Contemplating it sometimes takes a few month from a last listening to to sentencing, the courtroom is predicted to ship a verdict someday in October.
In Korea, spreading false info to get a candidate elected is punishable by imprisonment with labor for as much as 5 years or by a wonderful not exceeding 30 million gained ($23,000).
With a two-year jail sentence demanded, Lee will lose his parliamentary seat if the sentence is confirmed. Moreover, his eligibility to run for workplace may even be revoked for 5 years, successfully stopping him from collaborating within the 2027 presidential election.
The ruling social gathering known as for an acceptable and neutral sentencing throughout a gathering on the Nationwide Meeting on Friday.
The ruling Folks Energy Celebration’s flooring chief, Choo Kyung-ho, requested that “the courtroom ship a good verdict primarily based on regulation and customary sense, devoid of political calculations.” Choo additionally criticized the delay in concluding the primary trial associated to Lee’s case, noting it took two years as a substitute of the legally prescribed one yr.
Prosecutors charged Lee with making false remarks in violation of the Public Official Election Act for stating throughout a tv interview in December 2021 that he didn’t know Kim Moon-ki, who was then a senior growth official from a state-run firm devoted to land growth in Daejang-dong, a district in southern Gyeonggi Province, whereas he was mayor.
The land growth undertaking was on the middle of a scandal that plagued Lee throughout the presidential election, with allegations that Seongnam granted favors to a personal developer to safe the profitable residence growth within the metropolis’s Daejang-dong district and reap a windfall.
Kim was discovered useless in December 2021 at his workplace whereas beneath investigation.
Lee can be accused of falsely claiming throughout a parliamentary session in October 2021 that rezoning to show a inexperienced belt into homes for a separate growth undertaking in Seongnam’s Baekhyeon-dong district within the mid-2010s in Gyeonggi Province was the results of coercion by the Land Ministry.
