[Breaking News] Supreme Court to Announce Verdict on Lee Jae-myung's Election Law Violation Appeal on May 1 at 3 PM

The Supreme Court's judgment on the case of Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act will be announced in two days.

On the 29th, the Supreme Court announced that it would deliver the verdict on the appeal regarding Lee's alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act at 3 PM on the 1st of next month in the main courtroom. After receiving the case on the 28th of last month, the Supreme Court referred it to the full bench and held two hearings on the 22nd and 24th. The referral to the full bench was directly decided by Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae.

Lee is accused of making false statements by claiming on a broadcast as a presidential candidate in 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-gi, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, and by stating during a national audit that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had threatened during the process of changing the land use of the Korea Food Research Institute site in Baekhyeon-dong, Seongnam.

In the first trial, Lee was found guilty of the so-called 'golf remarks' and 'Baekhyeon-dong related remarks' regarding Kim, and was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspension. However, the second trial overturned the original judgment, finding him not guilty on all charges. The court at the time ruled that the remarks related to Kim were about 'perception' rather than 'action' and could not be punished as false statements.

Regarding the Baekhyeon-dong remarks, the court stated that the comments made in accordance with the legal requirements of the Special Act on Public Institution Relocation were overall expressions of opinion and could not be considered false.

The Supreme Court is expected to make a final decision on how to evaluate the sharply divided judgments of the first and second trials and whether each statement can be punished as false statements under election law.

Reporter Lee Min-hyung, Hankyung.com meaning@hankyung.com