South Korean prosecutors demand 2-yr prison term for opposition leader for election law violation

Seoul, Feb 26 (IANS) South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a two-year prison term for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election.

Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) is considered the presidential frontrunner in the event that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment is upheld, but confirmation of his lower court sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years, would bar him from running in the next presidential election in 2027.

The opposition leader 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.

During the final hearing of his appellate trial in the day, the prosecution said Lee deserves “a heavy punishment for distorting voters’ choices by telling a lie.”

The verdict for Lee is expected to come out in late March, Yonhap news agency reported.

Upon arrival at the Seoul High Court for the session, Lee told reporters: “The court will make the right judgment … In the ways of the world, everything is bound to flow in the direction of common sense and principles.”

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.

In November, a lower court found him guilty of making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act and sentenced him to a suspended one-year prison term.

–IANS

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