Lee Jae-myung's 'violation of the Public Official Election Act' was sentenced in the first trial today.the greatest crisis in judicial risk

[Anchor]
Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is serving four trials as the leader of the main opposition party, will be sentenced for the first time today (15th).

According to the result of the sentence, it is expected to be the biggest crisis in Lee's judicial risk as it could deal a fatal blow to the Democratic Party as well as the individual Lee, who is considered the next leading presidential candidate.

First, reporter Kim Da-hyun organized what this case was about.

[Reporter]
Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, is accused of falsely saying that he did not know about the late Kim Moon-ki, who was a key practitioner in the Daejang-dong development project, when he was mayor of Seongnam in December 2021.

The prosecution believes that CEO Lee lied to draw a line with the suspicion of corruption in the development of Daejang-dong, even though he was in close relationship with Kim on a business trip and receiving face-to-face reports.

[Lee Jae-myung / Then-Democratic presidential candidate (last 2021, SBS News): (Director Kim Moon-ki, did you know a little while you were mayor?) I didn't know when I was mayor. I was a subordinate employee.]

The prosecution also believes that representative Lee made false remarks during the parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province in October of the same year.

CEO Lee refused several times to repurpose the site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Baekhyun-dong, which was a green area when he was mayor of Seongnam, but was suspected of suddenly raising four levels to a semi-residential area when his aides came to lobby for an apartment development project.

When the National Assembly also pointed out this point, CEO Lee said, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport threatened to make a problem of dereliction of duty, so we were forced to change the use."

[Lee Jae-myung / Then-Democratic presidential candidate (last 2021, Gyeonggi-do State Audit): If you don't change the use (of it), I don't say that you'll threaten to do everything because of the dereliction of duty, so I'll reflect on it a little bit....]

At that time, the prosecution judged that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport only requested cooperation from Seongnam City, and that the repurposing was decided by Lee himself, and that it was a lie.

In a final hearing in September, the prosecution asked CEO Lee to serve two years in prison, the maximum sentence in terms of sentencing standards.If Representative Lee is fined more than 1 million won for violating the Public Official Election Act, he will lose his parliamentary seat and be deprived of his right to run for the next five years.

The Democratic Party of Korea also has to return 43.4 billion won in campaign funds that were preserved in the last presidential election, which could deal a fatal blow not only to Lee himself but also to the party.

On the other hand, if CEO Lee's claim that "I didn't know" is merely a subjective expression and that he had no intention of lying is accepted and found not guilty, the prosecution is expected to face a backlash for unreasonable prosecution.

I'm YTN's Kim Dahyun.