All Lee Jae Myung's Trials Postponed Until After Election, Kim Hye Kyung Fined 1.5 Million Won

Second Trial for Perjury Instruction Postponed to "To Be Determined"

The appellate trial for Lee Jae Myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, regarding the charge of instructing perjury has been postponed until after the 6·3 presidential election. All of Lee's trials have now been delayed until after the election.

Lee Jae Myung, Democratic Party presidential candidate. Photo by Kim Hyun Min

The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Lee Seunghan) changed the date of the first appellate hearing, originally scheduled for the 20th, to "to be determined" on the 12th. "To be determined" means the hearing date has been postponed. An official from the Seoul High Court stated, "The hearing date was changed because the defendant registered as a presidential candidate last weekend."

On the 7th, Lee's legal team submitted requests to change the hearing dates to three separate panels handling the Public Official Election Act case, the Daejang-dong case, and the perjury instruction case, and the court accepted all of them. Previously, the panel handling Lee's election law violation retrial also rescheduled the first hearing, originally set for the 15th, to June 18, after the presidential election. The Daejang-dong, Wirye, Baekhyeon-dong, and Seongnam FC cases, which had two hearings scheduled this month, have both been postponed, with the next hearing set for June 24. For the "Ssangbangwool illegal remittance to North Korea" case and the "Gyeonggi Province corporate card misuse" case, both being heard at Suwon District Court, the first trial preparation hearing is scheduled for the 27th, but the defendant is not required to attend the preparation hearing.

Meanwhile, Lee's wife, Kim Hye Kyung, who was indicted for violating the Public Official Election Act, was sentenced to a fine of 1.5 million won in the appellate trial, the same as in the first trial. Under the Public Official Election Act, if a fine of 1 million won or more is finalized, Kim will be barred from election campaigning for five years. However, since it is unlikely that a final verdict will be reached before the presidential election, there will be no issue with her participating in campaign activities during the election period.