[Anchor]
Former President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was indicted on charges of publicizing false information during his presidential campaign, has been sentenced to a term that would invalidate his election in the appellate trial as well. If this ruling is finalized, the People Power Party will have to return the 39.7 billion won it received as campaign expense reimbursements.
Reporter Kwon Min-kyu has the details.
[Reporter]
[Judge Baek Seung-yeop, Presiding Judge, Seoul High Court Division 2-1: We sentence as follows. The defendant's appeal is dismissed.]
The Seoul High Court sentenced former President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, to one year and six months in prison with a three-year probation, the same as the first-instance ruling.
The court ruled that both charges of publicizing false information made by former President Yoon during his time as the presidential candidate for the People Power Party in the 20th presidential election were guilty.
These include his statement during a Kwanhun Club debate in December 2021 that he had never introduced a lawyer to former Yongsan Tax Office Chief Yoon Woo-jin,
[Yoon Seok-yeol (December 2021, then-presidential candidate): (Former Tax Office Chief Yoon Woo-jin's) younger brother is also a current prosecutor, and I was hardly in a position to introduce a lawyer like that.]
and his statement during an interview at a Buddhist event a month later, where he claimed he was introduced to Jeon Seong-bae, also known as Geonjin Beobsa, by a party official and that he had never met Jeon together with Kim Keon-hee. The court stated that all of these constitute offenses.
Regarding the remarks concerning the introduction of a lawyer, the court judged that former President Yoon's statement did not merely mean he "did not arrange a legal representation contract," but rather meant "he did not even perform the act of connecting the two people," making it different from the facts.
As for the remarks regarding Jeon Seong-bae, the court stated, "It is recognized that former President Yoon first met Jeon through his spouse in 2013 and subsequently met him together with his spouse on multiple occasions," acknowledging the statements as false.
[Judge Baek Seung-yeop, Presiding Judge, Seoul High Court Division 2-1: (The defendant) publicized false information, thereby infringing upon the voters' right to make a proper choice and undermining the fairness of the election and the legality of the process.]
Former President Yoon's defense team expressed their intention to appeal, claiming that the verdict was pre-determined, while the special counsel team stated that the ruling was understandable to the public and expressed gratitude to the court.
Because a sentence equivalent to the invalidation of an election was handed down following the first trial, the People Power Party will be required to return the 39.7 billion won in election expenses reimbursed from the 20th presidential election if the ruling is finalized.
(Camera: Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing: Kim Jin-won | Design: Lee Jong-jung)
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