Arguments Conclude in Yoon’s Election Law Appeal, With 39.7 Billion Won at Stake for the People Power Party; Verdict Set for the 27th

[Financial News] The special prosecutor team has asked the court to uphold the suspended prison sentence imposed on former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was indicted on charges of making false statements during the 20th presidential election campaign and received a sentence in the first trial that would invalidate his election. Yoon’s side, by contrast, argued that the indictment ignored the context before and after his remarks and maintained his innocence.
The Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team, led by Special Counsel Min Joung-kie, asked the court on the 13th to dismiss Yoon’s appeal and impose the first-instance sentence of one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years. The request was made at the final hearing of Yoon’s appeal on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, held before Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2-1, presided over by High Court Judges Baek Seung-yeop, Seung-tae Hwang, and Kim Young-hyun.
The special prosecutor team stressed the seriousness of the offense and said it was necessary to uphold the original sentence. The special prosecutor said, “In the 20th presidential election, candidate Yoon won by only about 247,000 votes (0.73 percentage points) over candidate Lee Jae-myung. That was a smaller margin than the roughly 300,000 invalid ballots and the narrowest margin in the nation’s constitutional history.” The team added, “After the defendant made false statements, the related suspicions died down, allowing him to maintain his status as a leading candidate, and this had a significant impact on the election result.”
The team focused its rebuttal on the disputed allegation that Yoon introduced a lawyer to former Yongsan Tax Office chief Woo Jin Yun, and on his remarks denying close ties with Jeon Seong-bae, known as Geomjin Bopsa. The special prosecutor’s team pointed out, “When the former chief was arrested in December 2021, at a Kwanhun Club debate, Yoon made false statements to fend off allegations that he had exerted influence.” It added, “Taken together, the 2012 interview with reporter Han Sang-jin, call records, and text messages make it clear that he introduced attorney Lee Nam-seok.”
The team also stressed, regarding Yoon’s remarks just after the January 2022 Buddhist Leaders Forum, “In a reporter Q&A session he had volunteered for, he said that he had been introduced to Jeon by a party official and had never met him with his wife, concealing their close relationship. But the investigation confirmed that the defendant and his wife had maintained close ties with Jeon for nearly 10 years.”
Yoon’s side countered forcefully that, taking the circumstances at the time and the full context of the interviews into account, his remarks did not constitute the publication of false information. Regarding the allegation involving the former tax office chief, his lawyers argued, “Amid the conflict between police and prosecutors over investigative authority, when police were conducting a targeted investigation, he merely sought advice from his junior, attorney Lee, asking him to hear out the circumstances on a temporary basis to protect prosecutor Yoon Dae-jin. This was neither retaining a lawyer nor brokering a case in the legal sense.”
Regarding the allegations involving Jeon, they again stressed, “The central question in media reports at the time was whether Jeon was stationed at the election campaign as an adviser and acting as an unofficial power broker.” They added, “His immediate answer was simply that he and his wife had not met Jeon together at the campaign headquarters during the New Year’s gathering; he was not denying all of their private meetings in the past.”
Former President Yoon personally pleaded his innocence during questioning as the defendant and in his final statement. He said, “The fact is, I only asked him to hear out the circumstances because he was having a hard time. The formal retainer was arranged through attorney Park Jin-man.” He added, “At the hearings and at the Kwanhun Club, I answered only in accordance with my memory and the facts.”
Regarding the allegations involving Jeon, Yoon said, “The exchange was based on the circumstances at the New Year’s gathering at Daeha Building on January 1.” He protested, “It defies common sense to distort a brief, split-second answer in a Q&A and try to punish me as if I had denied all of my past meetings with him.”
If the first-instance sentence against former President Yoon is upheld, the People Power Party will have to return 39.7 billion won in election expenses and other costs reimbursed at the time to the National Election Commission (NEC).
The court concluded arguments today and is scheduled to deliver its ruling on the 27th.
[email protected] Lee Chang-hoon Reporter