Lee Jae-myung (center), leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is surrounded by reporters upon arriving at the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Sept. 20, to attend the final hearing on his alleged election law violations for making false statements during his presidential campaign in 2021. (Yonhap)
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is set to be sentenced Friday on charges of lying during the previous presidential campaign when he was a candidate, a decision that will affect whether he can run in the next presidential election in 2027.
Lee, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, is accused of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.
Lee is also accused of lying during a parliamentary audit of the Gyeonggi provincial government in October 2021 that he was under pressure from the land ministry to rezone the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Seongnam. The site was later developed into apartment complexes by a private developer, and allegations were raised that Lee rezoned the land to give preferential treatment to the company.
The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to deliver its sentence at 2:30 p.m. on whether Lee is guilty of making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act
If given a fine of 1 million won ($710) or more, and the sentence is upheld, Lee will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and barred from running for public office for the next five years, including the 2027 presidential election.
The DP will also have to return the 43.4 billion won it received from the state election watchdog to cover its presidential election expenses.
Prosecutors have demanded a two-year prison term for Lee.
The verdict will be the first of four sentences handed to the opposition leader, as he is currently standing three other trials on charges of suborning a former mayoral secretary to make false court testimony in his favor, corruption in connection with the Seongnam development project, and involvement in an illegal cash transfer of $8 million to North Korea.
Lee is considered a front-runner in the next presidential election, after having lost to President Yoon Suk Yeol by a 0.73 percentage point margin in 2022. (Yonhap)
