Supreme Court remands Lee Jae-myung's election law violation case for retrial

The Supreme Court remanded the election law violation case of liberal Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung for which he was acquitted of false statements by an appellate court.

Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung leaves the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, after attending a trial on corruption charges on April 29. [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court remanded the election law violation case of liberal Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung for which he was acquitted of false statements by an appellate court.

The ruling was delivered in the Supreme Court’s main courtroom in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Thursday at around 3 p.m. The bench was split with 10 justices for and two against. Lee will have to undergo a retrial at the Seoul High Court. During the second trial, additional sentencing hearings are likely to be held to determine a new sentence.

"We remand the ruling by the appellate court and send the case back to the Seoul High Court," said Chief Justice Jo Hee-de.

Lee was charged with violating the Public Official Election Act for allegedly making false statements during the 2022 presidential campaign.

The DP candidate was accused of making false statements during his 2021 presidential campaign. He claimed in a broadcast that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, the former head of the development division at Seongnam Development Corporation.

He also stated during a parliamentary audit that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had threatened Seongnam City during the rezoning process for a Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong.

In the first trial, the court found Lee guilty of making false statements in two instances: the so-called golf remark, in which he denied playing golf with Kim, and his remarks related to Baekhyeon-dong. He was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for two years.

However, the appellate court acquitted him of all charges at the time. The High Court ruled that the statement regarding Kim concerned Lee's “awareness,” not his “actions,” and thus could not be punished as a false statement.

The Supreme Court on the other hand, did see that Lee's statement was false, saying that the DP candidate’s claim that the land use change in Baekhyeon-dong was due to pressure from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport was not true.

“The ministry never pressured Seongnam city by invoking any mandatory provision,” said the chief justice in the ruling, adding that “the defendant, Lee Jae-myung, made a clearly false statement that contradicts this.”

With the ruling, Lee's so-called legal risk has not been alleviated, as his eligibility for office now faces renewed scrutiny.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. BY KIM MIN-YOUNG, HYEON YE-SEUL [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]