The Seoul High Court on May 2 received back the case records for the public official election law case involving Lee Jaemyung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, from the Supreme Court. This comes just one day after the Supreme Court en banc overturned the not-guilty verdict of the appellate court and sent the case back for retrial with instructions to convict.
Chief Justice Cho Heedai is preparing for the Supreme Court trial to deliver a ruling on the appeal in the public official election law violation case of Lee Jaemyung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, at the Supreme Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of May 1, 2025. Photo by Joint Press Corps
The Seoul High Court announced that the case records for Lee's public official election law case arrived at the court on the morning of May 2.
The Seoul High Court will assign the retrial to a specific panel of judges through its case allocation process. The original panel, the 6th Criminal Division, will be excluded from this allocation.
According to the court's internal case distribution rules, it is considered likely that the 7th Criminal Division, headed by Presiding Judge Lee Jaegwon, which serves as the substitute panel for the 6th Criminal Division, will take charge of the case. If the assigned panel faces any conflicts of interest with the parties involved, the 2nd Criminal Division, led by Presiding Judge Kim Jongho, which also handles election cases, may be assigned instead.
Once the case is allocated, the panel will set a date for the hearing and issue a notice summoning the parties to appear in court. If the notice is not delivered to the parties by the scheduled date, the panel must set a new hearing date.
Supreme Court rulings are binding on lower courts. Accordingly, unless decisive new evidence emerges that could overturn the Supreme Court's guilty finding, the Seoul High Court in the retrial will be compelled to deliver a guilty verdict.
While there is speculation that the retrial could also reach a swift conclusion following the Supreme Court's decision, legal experts generally agree that, considering Lee's right to defense and procedural requirements, it will be physically difficult for a final ruling to be confirmed before the presidential election. This is because, after the retrial ends, if Lee files another appeal, there are mandatory procedures such as a seven-day appeal period and a twenty-day period for submitting opinions. In effect, while the Supreme Court has concluded the 'legal judgment,' many say that the 'political judgment' regarding Lee has been left to the sovereign people.
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