[Breaking] Court: "Lee Jae-myung's December 22 Call Hard to See as Perjury Demand"

On the 25th, during the first trial sentencing hearing of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, held at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 33 (Presiding Judge Kim Dong-hyun), the court stated, "Regarding the phone call on December 22, 2018, considering the context of the expressions and the overall circumstances of the conversation, the manner of requesting testimony during the call is not significantly different from the usual way of requesting testimony, which involves mentioning what testimony the requester needs and confirming what the witness remembers or knows. Therefore, it is difficult to consider that requesting mention of the testimony needed constitutes a demand for perjury."

Lee was indicted last October on charges of instructing perjury, accused of 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, and asking him to appear as a witness and provide false testimony favorable to Lee.

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 the 'Impersonation of Prosecutor Incident.'

The impersonation incident 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, PD Choi impersonated a prosecutor while calling Kim Byung-ryang, then mayor of Seongnam, from Lee's office, with Lee providing the name of the prosecutor to impersonate and the questions to ask.

Lee was convicted of impersonating a public official in this case and was fined 1.5 million won 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 rival candidate about the 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 already confirmed guilty by the Supreme Court constituted false information that could influence the election. On December 11, 2018, Lee was indicted without detention for false statement under the Public Official Election Act. The prosecution's view was that Lee conspired in the impersonation by providing the name and questions of the prosecutor to impersonate to Mr. Choi and, despite having been criminally punished for it, falsely declared that he was not involved in the impersonation incident.

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 and was assisting CEO Jung Ba-ul's Baekhyeon-dong development project, was repeatedly called by Lee around December 2018 and asked to testify that "there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw the accusation against Mr. Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS during the impersonation incident." Kim In-seop, known as a close aide to Lee, acted as a lobbyist for Baekhyeon-dong.

According to the prosecution, Kim Jin-sung, who received such a request from Lee, appeared as a witness on February 14, 2019, at 2 p.m. at the Suwon District Court Seongnam Branch for Lee's trial on the Public Official Election Act violation charge. After taking the oath, Kim testified that there was an agreement or atmosphere to withdraw the accusation against Mr. Choi to frame Lee as the main culprit between Kim Byung-ryang and KBS during the impersonation incident, even though he did not know or remember 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 last October on perjury charges 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 the phone call between Kim and Lee at that time 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 incident." 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.

Among the call contents, Lee's request for Kim to make statements with a specific intention when Kim said he did not remember well can be clearly seen as instructing perjury. Furthermore, evidence has emerged that Lee sent Kim a brief of arguments before the testimony to practice desired answers to expected questions, making it difficult for Lee to escape the charges.

Presiding Judge Yoo Chang-hoon, who dismissed Lee's arrest warrant last September, also stated that the perjury instruction charges "appear to be substantiated." Moreover, even before the sentencing for the Public Official Election Act violation charge, 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 guilt in this case to be high.

Unlike the Public Official Election Act violation charge, if Lee is found guilty of instructing perjury and sentenced to a fine, he can retain his parliamentary seat. However, if Lee is sentenced to imprisonment for instructing perjury (which does not carry a prison sentence with labor), he will lose his parliamentary seat and be barred 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 parliamentary seat but the right to run for office will be restored after the suspension period ends.

If a suspended prison sentence is imposed and confirmed, Lee will lose his National Assembly seat, but the Central Election Management Committee interprets that his eligibility to run for office will be restored once the suspension period expires.

At around 11:48 p.m. that day, Lee arrived at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul. After greeting Democratic Party lawmakers 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 intent of perjury?"