'Donbongtu Suspicion Lee Seong-man 2nd Trial' Statement by Song Young-gil: "'Lee Jeong-geun Recording' Has No Evidentiary Value"

Prosecution: "No coercion involved... Only Song Young-gil acquitted"
Additional witness examination for Lee Jeong-geun and the prosecutor scheduled for April 4

Song Young-gil, leader of the Sonamu Party, appeared as a witness at the appellate trial of former Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Seong-man, who was indicted on charges of 'money envelope bribery,' emphasizing the court's ruling that the key evidence, the 'Lee Jeong-geun recording file,' lacks evidentiary value. Lee was prosecuted in connection with the 'Democratic Party Convention Money Envelope' case, in which money envelopes were distributed to incumbent Democratic Party lawmakers to secure Song's election as the party leader.

Yonhap News

On the 5th, the Criminal Division 7 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Lee Jae-kwon, Song Mi-kyung, Kim Seul-gi) held the third appellate trial for Lee’s charges including violations of the Political Funds Act. In the first trial, Lee was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison with a two-year probation and a fine of 3 million won; both the prosecution and Lee appealed.

Lee was indicted for giving a total of 11 million won in two installments around March 2021 to election campaign officials, including former leader Song. He is also accused of exchanging three money envelopes containing 3 million won each at a meeting of lawmakers supporting Song held on April 28 of the same year in the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee’s small conference room in the National Assembly main building.

Song, who appeared as a witness for Lee’s defense, stated, "There was absolutely no prior conspiracy or knowledge among Lee Seong-man, Kang Rae-gu (former Standing Auditor of Korea Water Resources Corporation), and Lee Jeong-geun regarding the receipt of 10 million won," adding, "The prosecution conducted a separate investigation into the Democratic Party Convention money envelope case and violated the principle of warrant requirement, so I believe the court made the correct judgment by rejecting illegally obtained evidence."

Earlier, on January 8, Song was found guilty of receiving illegal political funds amounting to approximately 763 million won but was acquitted of charges related to money envelopes. At that time, the court ruled that the recording file from former Democratic Party Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jeong-geun’s mobile phone, submitted as evidence by the prosecution, was "evidence collected through illegal procedures" and therefore inadmissible.

The prosecution rebutted Song’s claims by stating that the 'Lee Jeong-geun recording file' has been recognized as admissible evidence in trials of lawmakers involved in the money envelope case. The prosecution emphasized, "We did not fabricate evidence but based the indictment on existing evidence and legal provisions. Until the ruling on Song Young-gil’s evidence issue, all facts and evidence confirmed guilt, and other cases have been finalized with guilty verdicts."

On the 30th, at the sentencing trial for the "Money Envelope Incident" held during the Democratic Party of Korea's party convention, former lawmaker Lee Seong-man, who was sentenced to 9 months in prison with a 2-year probation, is leaving the courtroom. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

On this day, Song refused all questioning by the prosecution, stating, "The prosecution has denied its own qualification as a representative of public interest." He raised his voice, saying, "The prosecution of the Republic of Korea has become a henchman of Yoon Seok-yeol. Especially, the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 2 did not indict the Kim Geon-hee case despite overwhelming evidence, yet they are investigating the Democratic Party Convention case from two years ago, which ended without issue, as if searching for every little thing."

In response, the prosecution countered, "The prosecution did not indict the Kim Geon-hee case and claims only the individual is guilty, but our standard is simply whether there is evidence or not," adding, "Based on that, we have handled cases with the same standard so far, and we feel very regretful that such controversies keep recurring."

On this day, the prosecution applied to add former Deputy Secretary-General Lee and the prosecutor who interviewed him as additional witnesses. The prosecution intends to prove that Lee voluntarily submitted his mobile phone without coercion from the prosecutor and broadly consented to the use of call recording files stored on the phone in other cases. The court accepted the prosecution’s witness application and plans to hold further arguments on the afternoon of April 4.