Sentencing Date Remains "Undecided"
The appellate court for the perjury coaching case involving Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that it will hold the first formal trial on the 20th of next month and conclude the trial proceedings on June 3.
On the 1st, the Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Lee Seung-han, Park Jung-woon, Yoo Je-min) held the second pretrial conference for Lee, who is on trial for perjury coaching, and made this decision. Since the defendant is not required to attend the pretrial conference, Lee did not appear. Lee appeared as a defendant in another court for the Daejang-dong case trial.
On this day, the appellate court accepted Kim as a witness, as requested by the prosecution, and attorney Shin Mo, as requested by Lee’s side. The court plans to hold the first trial session on May 20 to hear the prosecution’s reasons for appeal and conduct witness examination of Kim. The recorded phone conversations between Lee and Kim will also be played on that day. At the second trial session on June 3, the court will conduct the witness examination of attorney Shin Mo, then hear the final statements from both the prosecution and Lee’s side, and conclude the proceedings.
However, the date for the second trial’s verdict has not yet been set. The court stated, "The verdict date will be determined upon conclusion."
Previously, in the first trial, Lee was acquitted on the grounds that there was no intent to coach perjury and that the testimony request was routine. Meanwhile, Kim was fined 5 million won after some of his testimony was recognized as perjury.
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