The prosecution filed an appeal on the 27th, just one day after Lee Jae-myung, the representative of the Democratic Party of Korea, was acquitted in the appeals trial for violating the Public Official Election Act.
The Seoul High Court announced in a statement sent to the media that 'the appeal brief for the representative was received at 5:19 p.m.' Accordingly, the representative will receive the final judgment on this case from the Supreme Court. If the acquittal by the appeals trial is upheld by the Supreme Court, the representative will face no obstacles in future presidential candidacies.
Earlier, the 6th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Director General Choi Eun-jeong, Lee Ye-seul, Jeong Jae-o) acquitted the representative of violating the Public Official Election Act on the 26th. This overturned the first-instance ruling of one year in prison with a two-year probation handed down last November. Unlike the first-instance court, the appeals court determined that statements made by the representative, such as 'I have never played golf with Mr. Kim during overseas trips' and 'I changed the land use of the Baekhyeon-dong site under pressure from the Ministry of Land,' did not constitute the crime of publicizing false facts.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office stated about 2 hours and 30 minutes after the appeals ruling, 'We plan to appeal.' The prosecution remarked that 'the appeals court relied trustingly on the defendant's assertions that were dismissed after long hearings in the first-instance court.' They further stated that 'the judgment of the appeals court is a ruling that is vastly detached from the common sense and experiential norms of the general electorate regarding the representative's statements, reflecting a misunderstanding of the legal principles concerning the crime of publicizing false facts under the Public Official Election Act.'
Meanwhile, the Public Official Election Act stipulates that the first-instance trial should be completed within 6 months, while the second and third trials should be completed within 3 months each. However, considering the deadlines for submitting appeal reasons and delivery times, there are observations that it may not be easy for the Supreme Court to reach a definitive ruling by June.