▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon attends the first trial of his appeal against political funds law violations at the Seoul High Court on August 21.
A legal battle unfolded over a late-emerging phone recording file of Myung Tae-gyun during the trial regarding Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's alleged proxy payment for opinion polls.
While Mayor Oh's legal team argued that the file serves as powerful evidence proving his innocence, the special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki countered that businessman Kim Han-jung, who submitted the file to the court, may have edited it or selectively extracted only the favorable parts.
The court admitted the file as impeachment evidence to challenge the credibility of Myung Tae-gyun's statements.
During the continued appellate trial for Mayor Oh's alleged violation of the Political Funds Act, held on September 16 by Criminal Division 7 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Goo Hoe-keun), three phone recording files of conversations between Kim Han-jung and Myung Tae-gyun from March 2021 were played.
In the calls, Kim is heard saying, "I did the work because I wanted to help this guy," and "No one demanded it there, I just did it by myself."
There are also portions where Myung says, "Anyway, Oh Se-hoon doesn't know. He doesn't know, so don't worry. I'll take care of it," and "Have I ever received even ten won from Oh Se-hoon?"
Myung also remarked, "Since I didn't know the relationship between older brother [Kim] and Mayor Oh very well," "Mayor Oh didn't introduce [Kim] to me directly," and "Regardless of Mayor Oh, thanks to you and your help, older brother."
Mayor Oh's legal team argued that these remarks support the claim that Kim commissioned the opinion polls from Myung on his own accord, independently of Mayor Oh.
They stated that this contradicts the indictment alleging that Mayor Oh commissioned opinion polls from Myung and had Kim pay the costs on his behalf.
This recording file was recently submitted by Kim to the appellate court as impeachment evidence against Myung's statements and was not submitted during the first trial.
Impeachment evidence refers to opposing evidence intended to challenge the probative value of specific testimonies or statements.
Kim claimed that while changing his mobile phone after his phone calls with Myung, he forgot about the existence of the recording files, but remembered them after seeing Myung give false testimony during the appellate trial.
Accordingly, he found his previously used mobile phone in his Jeju Island villa storage and submitted three files he deemed most meaningful out of the 35 call recordings stored inside.
The special counsel team countered, "It has been confirmed that some files are not originals, and there are signs of modification around November 18, 2024, when media reports regarding this case were published," adding, "There is a high risk of falsification and fabrication."
They further argued, "We believe that Defendant Kim Han-jung did not discover the files belatedly, but rather had them all along and selectively submitted three files [favorable to him] without presenting them in court," and "It is inappropriate to admit this as evidence while refusing to submit the entire recording files."
The court stated, "Under the Criminal Procedure Act, impeachment evidence must be broadly recognized," adding, "Since there are as yet no circumstances indicating illegal acquisition or false fabrication, we will admit it as impeachment evidence despite the special counsel's disagreement," while designating October 2 as the final hearing date.
Mayor Oh was indicted without detention in December of last year on charges of receiving opinion poll results from Myung 10 times ahead of the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election in 2021 and having Kim, his longtime supporter, pay 33 million won in costs on his behalf.
The first trial recognized that Mayor Oh commissioned five opinion polls from Myung and had Kim make a proxy payment of 21 million won for the costs, sentencing Mayor Oh to a 10 million won fine and ordering a forfeiture of 21 million won.
If a fine of 1 million won or more for the crime of illegal receipt of political funds is finalized, the individual cannot hold or be appointed to a public office for five years, and if already holding or appointed to one, must resign.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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