Prosecutors Give Up Appeal in Roh Woong-rae Bribery Case, Acquittal Finalized

▲ Roh Woong-rae

The prosecution has decided not to appeal the rulings that acquitted former Democratic Party lawmaker Roh Woong-rae, who had been put on trial on charges of receiving bribes and illegal political funds, in both the first and second trials.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced today (the 28th) that "we have decided not to appeal the appellate court's ruling, which acquitted former lawmaker Roh of bribery and other charges." It added, "We comprehensively considered recent court rulings that apply stricter standards to the legality of procedures and requirements for voluntarily submitting related evidence from existing seized items, along with the likelihood of the appeal being accepted."

Previously, the prosecution presented a mobile phone file recording the so-called "rustling sound of a money envelope" as the core evidence in this case. However, as the court ruled that the evidence was unlawfully collected, the prosecution appears to have concluded that filing an appeal would yield little practical benefit.

As a result, former lawmaker Roh's acquittal has been finalized.

Roh was accused of receiving a total of 60 million won across five occasions between February and December 2020 from a businessman surnamed Park in exchange for providing various favors, such as arranging permits for a logistics center and power plant supply projects (charges of bribery and violation of the Political Funds Act, among others).

While investigating the bribery and mediation case of Lee Jeong-geun, former deputy secretary-general of the Democratic Party, the prosecution seized the mobile phone of Park's wife, surnamed Cho, and uncovered Roh's alleged offenses from it.

Having received Cho's mobile phone voluntarily, the prosecution indicted Roh without detention in March 2023 based on evidence including recorded files of conversations between Cho and Roh.

Ahead of the vote on the motion for Roh's arrest, independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon, who was the Minister of Justice at the time, explained regarding the file, "Even the rustling sound of the money envelope is recorded clearly."

However, in November of last year, the first-instance court ruled that Roh was not guilty because Cho's mobile phone was "unlawfully collected evidence" obtained voluntarily during a separate criminal investigation and thus lacked admissibility as evidence.

At the time, the trial court pointed out that "the investigative agency's procedural violations in the process of acquiring the evidence breached the principle of warrants and due process, and the degree of violation is by no means light."

The appellate court also ruled the recorded files to be unlawfully collected evidence and handed down an acquittal on the 21st.

While stating that the lower court erred in its judgment regarding the electronic information from the mobile phone that had been excluded as evidence in the first trial, the appellate court concluded that "proof of the facts charged still appears to be insufficient."

Immediately following the appellate ruling, President Lee Jae-myung wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "How can anyone other than the person himself begin to imagine how aggrieved senior Roh must have felt, having been indicted by political prosecutors and even stripped of his political life by his party?"

Following its decision not to appeal in the Daejang-dong development corruption case in November of last year, the prosecution has successively waived its right to appeal against acquittals in cases involving figures from the ruling camp and others.

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