The verdict hearing for the election law violation case of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, will be held on the 26th. Lee was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation in the first trial of this case on Nov. 15 last year.
The 6-2 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Directors General Choi Eun-jung, Lee Ye-seul, and Jeong Jae-o) will hold the fifth trial session of this case at 10:30 a.m. on the 26th, followed by the verdict hearing at 2 p.m.
During the fifth trial session, examinations of the sentencing witnesses requested by both the prosecution and Lee's side will be conducted. Sentencing witnesses are witnesses that the court refers to in order to determine the sentence. Lee's side requested Professor Jeong Jun-hee from Hanyang University, while the prosecution requested Professor Kim Seong-cheon from Chung-Ang University Law School. The court decided to examine both for 30 minutes each.
During the afternoon verdict hearing, the examination of the defendant, Lee, will take place for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Following this, the prosecution's final opinion and demands, the defense attorney's closing argument, and Lee's final statement will be heard, and the arguments in this case will conclude.
In the legal community, considering that the sentencing date is usually set for a month after the verdict hearing, predictions suggest that a ruling on Lee will be made in mid to late March.
Earlier, during the 2021 Democratic Party presidential primary, Lee noted that he was aware of the late Kim Moon-ki, then head of the Seongnam Development Corporation, who was in charge of the Daejang-dong development project, yet he claimed he did not know. He was indicted in September 2022 for making false statements during a National Assembly audit, saying, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport threatened to upgrade the land use designation for the Baekhyeon-dong development site to level 4."
Lee received a sentence of one year in prison with a two-year probation in the first trial of this case on Nov. 15 last year. The prosecution had demanded a two-year prison sentence. If Lee is sentenced to a fine of over 1 million won for violating the Public Official Election Act and the ruling is confirmed by the Supreme Court, he will lose his parliamentary seat. Additionally, if the prison sentence with probation is confirmed, he will be deprived of the right to run for election for 10 years and will be unable to run in the next presidential election. The Democratic Party must also return approximately 43.4 billion won that it received as election expenses for the last presidential election to the National Election Commission. Both Lee and the prosecution have appealed the first trial ruling.