Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, requested a reassignment of the trial panel handling the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case, but the court did not accept the request.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is appearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 8th. (Photo by Yonhap News)
On the 8th, at the preparatory hearing for the trial on charges including violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, held by the Criminal Division 11 of Suwon District Court (Chief Judge Shin Jin-woo), the presiding judge stated that it was "difficult" to accept the defense’s request for reassignment of the trial panel.
The defense submitted a written request for reassignment of the trial panel on the 30th of last month. In court that day, the defense argued that having the current trial panel, which handed down a guilty verdict in the first trial of the case against former Gyeonggi Province Peace Deputy Governor Lee Hwa-young for violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act and other charges?whose facts largely overlap with this case?was in direct conflict with the presumption of innocence principle.
On June 7, the trial panel sentenced former Deputy Governor Lee to 9 years and 6 months in prison, ruling that Ssangbangwool had remitted 8 million dollars to North Korea on behalf of Gyeonggi Province.
The prosecution opposed the defense’s claim, stating, "The request for reassignment itself demands a privilege rarely seen even in typical co-defendant cases," and added, "The grounds for disqualification of the trial panel require objective circumstances indicating that an unfair trial will be conducted under procedural law, but there are no such reasons in this case, and the claim is intended to delay the trial."
The trial panel said, "After internal review, there is no clear practical or legal precedent for the current situation," and expressed concern that "accepting such a reassignment request could risk undermining other constitutional values." The panel continued, "While we take the points raised by the defense seriously, the trial panel must carefully proceed with the hearing in a manner that discovers substantive truth and protects the defendant’s human rights in accordance with the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Act, making reassignment difficult," effectively dismissing the request.
The case against former Deputy Governor Lee is currently in the second trial stage.
Lee Jae-myung was indicted on charges of conspiring with former Deputy Governor Lee to have Kim Sung-tae, former chairman of the Ssangbangwool Group, pay on their behalf 5 million dollars for the 'Hwanghae Province Smart Farm Support' project funds promised by Gyeonggi Province to North Korea, and 3 million dollars for the governor’s official visit expenses to North Korea, from January 2019 to April 2020.
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