[Breaking] Court Rejects Lee Jae-myung's Defense of "Violation of Prosecutors' Office Act" as "Illustrative Enumeration Clause"

On the 25th at 2:10 PM, during the first trial sentencing hearing of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, held under the Criminal Division 33 of the Seoul Central District Court (Chief Judge Kim Dong-hyun), the court rejected Lee's claim that "the prosecution's investigation in this case was illegal as it exceeded the scope of investigation initiation by prosecutors under the Prosecutors' Office Act." The court stated, "The Prosecutors' Office Act delegates the specific scope of crimes that prosecutors can initiate investigations on to presidential decrees. It is reasonable to view crimes such as corruption and economic crimes as illustrative examples of important crimes that prosecutors can investigate," thereby dismissing Lee's objection.

Lee was indicted in October last year on charges of instructing false testimony after allegedly calling Kim Jin-sung, a former secretary to the late Kim Byung-ryang, former mayor of Seongnam, during his trial for violating the Public Official Election Act (false statement) in December 2018, asking him to appear as a witness and provide false testimony favorable to him.

At that time, Lee was on trial for allegedly making false statements during a TV debate as a candidate for Gyeonggi Province governor in May 2018, claiming that he was "falsely accused" in relation to the "prosecutor impersonation case."

The prosecutor impersonation case involved Lee, who was a lawyer at the time, being prosecuted for conspiring with PD Choi Cheol-ho of KBS's "Chujeok 60 Minutes" on May 10, 2002. The allegation was that Lee provided the name of the prosecutor to impersonate and the questions to ask when Choi called Kim Byung-ryang, then mayor of Seongnam, from Lee's office, pretending to be a prosecutor.

Lee was convicted of impersonating a public official in this case and was fined 1.5 million KRW by the Supreme Court in 2004.

However, on May 29, 2018, during the "2018 Local Election Gyeonggi Province Governor Candidate KBS Invitational Debate," Lee responded to a question from a competing candidate about the prosecutor impersonation by saying, "I did not do it; the PD impersonated, and I was just being interviewed nearby, so I was falsely accused of helping," and "I never made a call impersonating a prosecutor. I was falsely accused of helping just because I was being interviewed nearby while the PD did it."

The prosecution judged that Lee's statement claiming he was falsely accused in a case where guilt was already confirmed by the Supreme Court constituted false information that could influence the election. On December 11, 2018, Lee was indicted without detention on charges of false statement under the Public Official Election Act. The prosecution's view was that Lee conspired to impersonate a prosecutor by providing the name and questions to Choi and, despite having been criminally punished for this, falsely claimed he was not involved in the prosecutor impersonation case.

The prosecution determined that Kim Jin-sung, who was a secretary to former Mayor Kim and, along with Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology, had agreed to receive money in exchange for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project, was asked multiple times by Lee via phone calls around December 2018 to testify that "there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw the accusation against Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS during the prosecutor impersonation case." Kim In-seop, known as a close aide to Lee, acted as a lobbyist for the Baekhyeon-dong project.

According to the prosecution, Kim Jin-sung, who received Lee's request, appeared as a witness on February 14, 2019, at 2 PM at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch for Lee's trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. After taking the witness oath, Kim testified to the effect that there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw the accusation against Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit during the prosecutor impersonation case, despite not knowing or remembering whether such an agreement or atmosphere actually existed. Lee was acquitted in that trial, maintaining his position as governor of Gyeonggi Province and enabling him to run for president.

The prosecution indicted Kim Jin-sung last October on charges of perjury and Lee on charges of instructing perjury.

Kim admitted both to the prosecution and in court that he committed perjury at Lee's request. Additionally, a voice recording of their phone conversation was submitted as evidence.

The recording includes Lee telling Kim, "Please tell it as it is," and "I'm not asking you to reconstruct the case." Lee has argued that this shows he did not ask Kim to give false testimony. However, legal experts suggest that, as a legal professional, Lee might have consciously made these statements considering the possibility that the call was being recorded.

Moreover, Lee's request for Kim to testify in a specific way when Kim said he did not remember well can be seen as clear instruction to commit perjury. There is also evidence that Lee sent Kim a brief of arguments before the testimony to practice desired answers to expected questions, making it unlikely that Lee will be able to escape the charges.

In September last year, Judge Yoo Chang-hoon, who dismissed the arrest warrant for Lee, also stated that the perjury instruction charges appeared to be substantiated. Furthermore, even before the sentencing for the Public Official Election Act violation, Lee repeatedly posted on his Facebook claiming innocence and calling the case a "failed instruction," which can be interpreted as Lee himself considering the possibility of a guilty verdict in this case.

Unlike the Public Official Election Act violation charges, if Lee is found guilty of instructing perjury and sentenced to a fine, he can retain his parliamentary seat. However, if he is sentenced to imprisonment (note that instructing perjury does not carry a prison sentence with labor), he will lose his seat and be disqualified from running for office until the sentence expires. According to the Act on the Execution and Exemption of Sentences, imprisonment exceeding three years becomes effective or exempted after 10 years, and imprisonment of three years or less after five years. If a suspended sentence is confirmed, Lee will lose his seat but the disqualification period will last only until the suspension period ends.

If a suspended prison sentence is confirmed, Lee will lose his National Assembly seat, but his eligibility to run for office will be restored after the suspension period, according to the Central Election Management Committee's interpretation.

At around 11:48 PM that day, Lee arrived at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul. After greeting Democratic Party members who were waiting, he entered the courthouse without responding to reporters' questions such as "How do you expect the verdict?" and "What is your position on the intentionality of perjury?"