Supreme Court Justice Park Young-jae (56, Judicial Research and Training Institute 22nd class) has been assigned as the presiding judge for the appeal in the public election law violation case of former Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung. The second trial court overturned the first trial verdict, which had sentenced Lee to one year in prison with a two-year probation, and declared him not guilty.
According to legal sources on the 22nd, the Supreme Court assigned Lee's public election law violation case to the second division. The second division consists of Justices Oh Kyung-mi, Kwon Young-jun, Eom Sang-pil, and Park Young-jae. The presiding judge is Justice Park Young-jae.
Justice Park was appointed as a Supreme Court Justice in August last year. A native of Busan, he graduated from Baegjeong High School and the law school at Seoul National University, then began his judicial career in 1996 at the Eastern District Court of Seoul. He later served at the Daejeon High Court, Seoul High Court, and Busan High Court, and worked as the personnel manager and Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination at the Court Administration Office, serving as Deputy Minister during the term of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo.
Former Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung was indicted in September 2022 on charges of violating the public election law by disseminating false information, having appeared on broadcasting debates four times before the 2021 election. The statements the prosecution found problematic included: ▲ He did not know Kim Moon-ki (former head of development at the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation) while serving as Seongnam mayor; ▲ He did not play golf with Kim Moon-ki; ▲ The change in land use for the Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyeon-dong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, was due to intimidation from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
Previously, the first trial court sentenced Lee to one year in prison with a two-year probation in November last year. The court deemed Lee's statements about not knowing Kim Moon-ki and changing the land use in Baekhyeon-dong under pressure from the Ministry of Land to be a deliberate dissemination of false information.
However, the appellate court acquitted Lee on the 26th of last month. The court suggested that Lee's statements were not about any specific actions but rather expressions of 'awareness,' and thus not subject to punishment under the public election law.