Opposition Leader in South Korea Cleared of Election Law Breach
On Wednesday, an appeal court acquitted South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of violating election laws, solidifying his status as a leading candidate for the upcoming presidential election.
TroibNews 
South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was acquitted of election law violations by an appeal court on Wednesday, solidifying his status as a leading candidate for the upcoming presidential election.
The Seoul High Court reversed a previous ruling, stating that Lee, head of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, made no false statements during the last presidential campaign.
In November of the previous year, the Seoul Central District Court had issued a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, to Lee for disseminating false information during the 2022 presidential election. Prosecutors had sought a two-year jail term for him in both the initial and appeal trials.
According to legal statutes, if Lee had been fined over 1 million won for election law violations as confirmed by the Supreme Court, he would have lost his parliamentary seat and been prohibited from running in future elections for a decade.
Having narrowly lost the 2022 election to impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee is widely perceived as the strongest contender for the next presidential race. A survey conducted by local pollster Flower indicated that 49.6 percent of respondents intended to vote for the Democratic Party's candidate in the next election, while 29.5 percent favored the ruling People Power Party's candidate.
Lee emerged as the preferred choice for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, with a support rate of 85.5 percent. This polling data was gathered from 3,004 voters between March 17 and 20, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points and a 95-percent confidence level.
Outside the court, a divided crowd of both supporters and opponents of Lee shouted contrasting slogans on adjacent streets, displaying banners stating "Lee Jae-myung is innocent" and "Go to prison, Jae-myung."
Lee faced indictment in 2022 for statements made during a December 2021 media interview, during which he was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate and claimed ignorance of a senior official at the urban development agency in Seongnam, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018. While Lee stated he could not recall the late official during the interview, prosecutors contended that he misled voters to distance himself from an alleged corruption scandal involving a land development project linked to the agency.
Additionally, Lee was accused of making misleading claims during a parliamentary audit in October 2021. At that time, he was Gyeonggi province governor and stated he had faced threats from the land ministry of the previous conservative government, claiming this pressure led him to change land use designations for a separate development project while he was mayor. Prosecutors argued that no such threats existed; however, Lee maintained that the land ministry exerted pressure on Seongnam city, even acknowledging that he had made exaggerated statements.
Max Fischer for TROIB News
The Seoul High Court reversed a previous ruling, stating that Lee, head of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, made no false statements during the last presidential campaign.
In November of the previous year, the Seoul Central District Court had issued a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, to Lee for disseminating false information during the 2022 presidential election. Prosecutors had sought a two-year jail term for him in both the initial and appeal trials.
According to legal statutes, if Lee had been fined over 1 million won for election law violations as confirmed by the Supreme Court, he would have lost his parliamentary seat and been prohibited from running in future elections for a decade.
Having narrowly lost the 2022 election to impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee is widely perceived as the strongest contender for the next presidential race. A survey conducted by local pollster Flower indicated that 49.6 percent of respondents intended to vote for the Democratic Party's candidate in the next election, while 29.5 percent favored the ruling People Power Party's candidate.
Lee emerged as the preferred choice for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, with a support rate of 85.5 percent. This polling data was gathered from 3,004 voters between March 17 and 20, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points and a 95-percent confidence level.
Outside the court, a divided crowd of both supporters and opponents of Lee shouted contrasting slogans on adjacent streets, displaying banners stating "Lee Jae-myung is innocent" and "Go to prison, Jae-myung."
Lee faced indictment in 2022 for statements made during a December 2021 media interview, during which he was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate and claimed ignorance of a senior official at the urban development agency in Seongnam, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018. While Lee stated he could not recall the late official during the interview, prosecutors contended that he misled voters to distance himself from an alleged corruption scandal involving a land development project linked to the agency.
Additionally, Lee was accused of making misleading claims during a parliamentary audit in October 2021. At that time, he was Gyeonggi province governor and stated he had faced threats from the land ministry of the previous conservative government, claiming this pressure led him to change land use designations for a separate development project while he was mayor. Prosecutors argued that no such threats existed; however, Lee maintained that the land ministry exerted pressure on Seongnam city, even acknowledging that he had made exaggerated statements.
Max Fischer for TROIB News
