Noh Ung-rae, a former lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea who was brought to trial on charges of receiving tens of millions of won in bribes and illegal political funds, was acquitted on appeal.
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeals Division 5-2 (Presiding Judges Kim Yong-jung, Kim Ji-seon and So Byung-jin) on the 21st acquitted the former lawmaker indicted on charges including violating the Political Funds Act, the same as the first trial.
The former lawmaker was indicted without detention in Mar. 2023 on charges that from Feb. to Dec. 2020 he received 60 million won in five installments from a businessman, a person surnamed Park, in return for arranging permits for a logistics center and providing favors for a power plant supply business and a solar power generation project. Prosecutors determined that part of the money was handed over as funds for the general election and as the party convention election expense.
Prosecutors searched and seized the mobile phone of a person surnamed Cho, the spouse of Park, in connection with the case of former Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jung-geun. In the process, prosecutors obtained leads on the former lawmaker's alleged crimes and indicted based on them.
The first-instance court found that the evidence had been obtained voluntarily during a separate criminal investigation and ruled it inadmissible, acquitting the defendant. The appellate court reached the same conclusion.
In the first trial, the court acquitted Park of the charge of handing money to the former lawmaker, and sentenced Park to one year and five months in prison for handing 330 million won to the former deputy secretary-general under the pretext of election expense, among others. The appellate ruling matched the first trial.