On the 26th, Shin Sang-jin, mayor of Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, stated, "After seeing today's verdict on Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, being acquitted in the appeal trial for false statement publication under the Public Official Election Act, one wonders if justice truly exists."
Screenshot of Shin Sang-jin, Mayor of Seongnam's Facebook homepage.
Mayor Shin wrote on social media (SNS), "Calling photo enlargement 'manipulation' and 'false information' as 'exaggerated expressions,'" and questioned, "Where exactly does the authority of the court that acquitted all first trial prison sentences with leniency, disregarding the people by using sophistry to justify their decision, come from?"
He continued, "In law school and the judicial examination, they probably did not learn or get points for such things," adding, "Many politicians who have lost their positions or had their eligibility revoked due to false statement publication rulings must feel very unfair."
Mayor Shin argued, "If judgments are made based on personal tendencies and arbitrariness like this, our country will no longer be a state governed by the rule of law but will become a very chaotic country where the law of the jungle prevails," and asked, "If the judiciary, the last bastion of the people, rots at its own discretion, where should the good citizens rely on?"
He also criticized, "The negative influence of judges like former Supreme Court Justice Kwon Soon-il and the judges involved in this ruling is very serious," and stated, "Our society, which has no checks on the judiciary, seems to be in need of a new system of checks and balances."
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