Photo : YONHAP News
Prosecutors sought a two-year sentence against main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung for allegedly making a false statement ahead of the 2022 presidential election, some two years after his indictment under the Public Official Election Act.
At the final hearing of Lee’s trial at the Seoul Central District Court on Friday, the prosecution called for a stern punishment, saying Lee had undermined democratic principles and compromised the fairness of the election with his lies.
Lee was indicted in September 2022 over statements he made during a media interview when he was the main opposition’s presidential candidate in December 2021, denying he had known the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive at the Seongnam Development Corporation(SDC), though they allegedly had close ties.
Kim was found dead in his SDC office a day before Lee’s interview, at a time when Kim was being questioned repeatedly by the prosecution over his alleged involvement in the Daejang-dong development scandal.
Lee also stands accused of giving a false statement during a parliamentary audit as Gyeonggi governor, when he said the land ministry under the former Park Geun-hye government had forced him to provide preferential treatment to a third party when rezoning the land for the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute.
While the court could reach a decision as early as next month, should Lee be convicted and fined at least one million won, or around 750 U.S. dollars, and should his sentence be upheld, he will lose his parliamentary seat and be banned from running in an election for five years.