Lee Jae-myung, Can He Avoid the Court of Lee Hwa-young Who Admitted 'Covering North Korea Visit Expenses'... Supreme Court Division 1 to Decide

Justice Seokyung Hwan Serves as Presiding Judge

The Supreme Court panel has decided whether to hold the trial for former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung's 'illegal remittance to North Korea' case at the Suwon District Court or at the Seoul Central District Court, where Lee is currently facing three other trials.

The Supreme Court's decision on Lee's application for a consolidated hearing could significantly impact the pace and outcome of the trial, drawing attention to what judgment the Supreme Court will make.

Lee Jae-myung, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is declaring his candidacy for party leader at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 10th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

According to the legal community on the 11th, Lee's application to the Supreme Court requesting that his illegal remittance to North Korea case be tried at the Seoul Central District Court was assigned to the Supreme Court's First Division earlier this month. The presiding justice is Seo Kyung-hwan. This panel previously rejected the final appeal against a judge disqualification request filed by former Gyeonggi Province Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young in December last year.

Earlier, on the 1st, Lee applied to the Supreme Court to consolidate the trials of the Daejang-dong, Seongnam FC, and Baekhyeon-dong development favoritism allegations currently underway at the Seoul Central District Court with the North Korea remittance case assigned to the Suwon District Court.

Article 6 of the Criminal Procedure Act (Consolidated Hearing of Jurisdiction) states, "When multiple related cases with different territorial jurisdictions are pending in different courts, the common higher court immediately above may, upon application by the prosecutor or defendant, decide to have one court conduct a consolidated hearing."

Since the Seoul Central District Court and Suwon District Court are under the Seoul High Court and Suwon High Court respectively, the common higher court, the Supreme Court, will decide whether to consolidate the hearings. There is no specific deadline for this decision, making it difficult to predict when the Supreme Court will rule. In cases of consolidated hearing applications based on territorial jurisdiction, only a decision of 'approval' or 'rejection' is made, and the reasons for the decision are not separately recorded in the ruling.

The case in which the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office Criminal Division 6 (Chief Prosecutor Seo Hyun-wook) indicted Lee on the 12th of last month on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, violation of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act, and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, was assigned through Suwon District Court's automatic electronic allocation system to the Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo), which previously sentenced the former Gyeonggi Province Deputy Governor to 9 years and 6 months in prison and a fine of 250 million won.

On the 7th of last month, the court found the former deputy governor guilty of conspiring with Bang Yong-chul, Vice Chairman of Ssangbangwool, and others to have Ssangbangwool Group employees pay the Gyeonggi Province smart farm expenses on his behalf, exporting a total of approximately $1.64 million USD abroad without reporting it to the relevant customs authorities.

Additionally, the court recognized that the $2 million USD transferred by Ssangbangwool to North Korea was sufficiently considered as a gratuity delivered to North Korean authorities in relation to the Gyeonggi Province governor's visit to North Korea, acknowledging Ssangbangwool's payment of Lee's visit expenses.

Presiding Judge Shin Jin-woo has been handling the former deputy governor's North Korea remittance-related charges (violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act) for 1 year and 8 months, demonstrating a high level of understanding of the case. Legal circles expect that if Lee's North Korea remittance trial proceeds at the Suwon District Court, the period until the first trial verdict could be significantly shorter than if it were held at the Seoul Central District Court.

However, even if the trial proceeds at the Suwon District Court, since Judge Shin is scheduled for personnel changes in February next year, it is uncertain whether he will be able to complete the first trial.

In any case, from Lee's perspective, avoiding the court that acknowledged Ssangbangwool's payment of his North Korea visit expenses could be a choice to slow down the trial and reduce the likelihood of a guilty verdict.