The first preparatory session for the second trial of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, in the 'perjury coaching case' was held on the 11th. On this day, the prosecution and Lee's team clashed over the prosecution’s investigation rights regarding perjury coaching. Previously, Lee was acquitted in the first trial of this case.
The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul High Court, presided over by Director General Lee Seung-han, conducted the first preparatory hearing for Lee's perjury coaching appeal at 2 p.m. This preparatory session is a procedure to organize the key issues and evidence before determining guilt or innocence. The first preparatory session for the appeal was held 107 days after the first trial's verdict on Nov. 25 last year. The second preparatory session is scheduled for the 1st of next month.
On this day, the prosecution argued, "The (first trial's acquittal) was a case of the tail wagging the dog," claiming that "the facts that could be seen as evidence of guilt were omitted, and parts of the remaining facts were unreasonably cut out and judged to be true, resulting in the overall testimony being deemed not perjury."
Lee's team noted, "I think the prosecution does not have investigation rights regarding perjury coaching," and asked, "Once again, please (the court) review this deeply." Lee's team argued in the first trial that due to the so-called 'complete abolition of prosecution investigation rights' that resulted from the legislative amendment, the prosecution cannot directly investigate perjury.
In response, the prosecution rebutted, "The investigation of perjury cases is within the prosecution’s authority." They stated that, following the legislative amendment, a decree included perjury as a crime subject to direct prosecution. The first trial court had also judged that "perjury is a crime that prosecutors can initiate investigations on, and the initiation of the investigation in this case cannot be deemed unlawful."
The perjury coaching case involves allegations that Lee asked Kim Jin-seong, who was the secretary to the late Kim Byeong-ryang, the former mayor of Seongnam, to provide false testimony during his trial for allegedly disseminating false facts during a broadcast debate while running for Gyeonggi Province governor in 2018.
Earlier, Lee was fined 1.5 million won by the Supreme Court in 2004 for impersonating a prosecutor while investigating the 'Bundang Baekgung Parkview allegations' along with KBS producer Choi Cheol-ho in 2002. However, during a broadcast debate in the 2018 Gyeonggi Province governor election, he claimed, "I was falsely accused (of impersonation)," and was charged with disseminating false facts.