Lee's Request to Change Hearing Dates Accepted
Follows Delay of Public Official Election Act Trial
Originally Set for May 13 and 27, Now Postponed to June 24
The trial for the Daejang-dong case, in which Lee Jae Myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, is a defendant, has been postponed until after the presidential election. This follows the one-month postponement of the first retrial hearing for his Public Official Election Act case.
On May 7, the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jin Kwan) postponed the next hearing date for Lee's Daejang-dong, Wirye, Baekhyeon-dong, and Seongnam FC cases to June 24. The hearings were originally scheduled for May 13 and 27, but the court rescheduled them after Lee's legal team requested a change in dates.
During the proceedings, Lee's legal team requested that the court exclude hearing dates that fell within the campaign period. However, on April 8, the court stated, "If specific dates are set, submit relevant materials and obtain approval," and tentatively scheduled the hearings. With the presidential election date and campaign period now confirmed, and Lee officially nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate on April 27, it is believed that the court accepted the formal request from Lee's team to change the hearing dates.
Earlier on the same day, the 7th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jae Kwon), which is handling the retrial for Lee's alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act, also postponed the first hearing from May 15 to June 18, after the presidential election. Lee's team cited Article 116 of the Constitution, which guarantees "equal opportunities for candidates to conduct election campaigns," and Article 11 of the Public Official Election Act, which prohibits the arrest or detention of presidential candidates during the campaign period, as the reasons for requesting a postponement until after the election.
The 7th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court announced the change in the hearing date immediately after receiving the request, stating, "To guarantee the defendant, who is a presidential candidate, equal opportunities for election campaigning and to eliminate concerns about the fairness of the trial, the hearing date has been postponed to after the presidential election."
Lee's legal team also submitted a request to change the hearing date to the 3rd Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Lee Seung Han), which is handling the second trial of the perjury subornation case. However, as of the afternoon of May 7, the first hearing for this case, scheduled for May 20, had not yet been changed.
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