All Acquitted on Appeal
Court: "Evidence Collected by Prosecution Violated Due Process"
Heo Jongsik, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, along with former lawmakers Yoon Kwansuk and Lim Jongseong, who were brought to trial on charges of exchanging envelopes of cash ahead of the 2021 Democratic Party national convention, were acquitted in their appeals trial.
On December 18, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judges Kim Joungho, Lee Sangju, and Lee Wonsuk) overturned the lower court's suspended prison sentences for Heo, Yoon, and Lim, who had been indicted for violating the Political Parties Act, and found all three not guilty.
The court did not accept any of the evidence collected by the prosecution. Specifically, the court ruled that the transcript of a mobile phone recording from Lee Junggeun, former Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, which was obtained by the prosecution in connection with this case, was inadmissible as evidence because it violated due process. As a result, the court excluded all electronic information stored on the mobile phone secured by the prosecution from being used as evidence. The court further determined that the remaining evidence submitted by the prosecution was insufficient to support the charges in this case.
The court stated, "A significant portion of the evidence that was used to convict in the first trial has been excluded by our court," adding, "The remaining evidence, such as lawmakers' schedules and meeting photos, is not sufficient to support the charges, and even when considering the prosecutor's arguments as a whole, it is not enough to find the defendants guilty."
They had been indicted on charges of exchanging envelopes containing 3 million won each at a meeting of lawmakers supporting former party leader Song Younggil, held in a subcommittee room of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on April 28, 2021.
Yoon, who was also brought to trial on charges of delivering the envelopes, was separately indicted for receiving 60 million won from a member of Song's campaign and was sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court. He was paroled in June of this year.
Meanwhile, Lee Seongman, a former independent lawmaker who was also tried on charges of receiving envelopes of cash along with Heo and Lim, was initially given a suspended prison sentence in the first trial, but was acquitted in the second trial in September.
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