Lee Jae-myung Election Law Case Acquitted at 1.31 Million Votes...Second Trial "Not False Information Disclosure" (Update)

"Difficult to Interpret as Denying Playing Golf with Kim Moon-gi"
"'Baekhyeon-dong Ministry of Land Threat' Was an Expression of Opinion, Not a Lie"
Dramatic Turnaround from Prison Sentence in First Trial

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was acquitted in the appeal trial of the Public Official Election Act violation case. Unlike the first trial that sentenced him guilty, the appellate court judged both the statement that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, and the statement that the change in land use designation of the Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province was due to pressure from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport as not guilty.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, who was acquitted in the appeal trial for violating the Public Official Election Act, is making a statement after the second trial sentencing hearing on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on March 26, 2025. Photo by Joint Press Corps

On the 26th, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 6-2 (Presiding Judges Choi Eun-jung, Lee Ye-seul, and Jung Jae-oh) held a sentencing hearing for Lee’s appeal trial on the charge of false statement under the Public Official Election Act and announced, "The original judgment is overturned, and the defendant is acquitted." In the sentencing hearing that lasted over an hour and a half, all the issues that the first trial, which sentenced him to one year in prison with two years of probation, had judged as guilty were reversed. This came 131 days after the first trial’s verdict.

The court ruled that both the statement implying that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi and the statement that the land use designation upgrade of the Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong was made under pressure from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport did not constitute false facts.

The court stated, "Lee’s statement cannot be interpreted as denying acquaintance with Kim Moon-gi, so it is not a statement about the act," and "The related statement cannot be punished as a false statement crime." It added, "Lee’s statement is not interpreted as a lie that he did not play golf," and "There was no mention of golf itself."

Furthermore, the court also ruled that the statement related to the Baekhyeon-dong site made during the 2021 National Assembly audit cannot be punished as a false statement crime. Regarding the statement, the court said, "The meaning of the Baekhyeon-dong statement is that the land use designation was changed reluctantly due to the Ministry of Land’s legal demands, not that the defendant inevitably changed the land use designation based on a mandatory provision."

In particular, the court noted, "It was made in the process of demanding an explanation for the question whether the land use was changed to give preferential treatment to private developers," and "The position at that time was summarized as 'reluctantly' and 'inevitably,' which is a relatively subjective statement."

The court added, "The Ministry of Land sent three requests for land use changes specifically to Seongnam City, all of which clearly stated the legal basis," and "The statement to comply with the legal demand cannot be considered false."

Meanwhile, the first trial court last November judged the statements that there was 'threat from the Ministry of Land' regarding the land use change of the Baekhyeon-dong site and that the photo of playing golf with the late Kim Moon-gi was fabricated as guilty. Lee was indicted in September 2022 on charges that his statements denying acquaintance with Kim Moon-gi and related to Baekhyeon-dong during the 2021 Democratic Party presidential primary were false.