President Lee Jae-myung Criticizes Ruling on Kim Yong, Calls Rejection of Google Timeline Evidence 'Absurd'

[Anchor]

President Lee Jae-myung has expressed his disbelief regarding the guilty verdict for illegal political funds handed down to his close aide, Kim Yong, former deputy director of the Institute for Democracy. President Lee specifically pointed out that it is an absurd conclusion for the court to reject Google Timeline—which automatically records location data—as evidence of innocence. The ruling party has criticized these remarks as an interference in the judicial process.

Reporter Kang Cheongwan has the story.

[Reporter]

On July 15, President Lee Jae-myung shared a post on social media by Representative Lee Geon-tae of the Democratic Party of Korea, who serves as the vice-chair of the party's special committee on responding to fabricated indictments. President Lee wrote, "It is truly difficult to understand how the prosecution can indict and the court can convict based on the absurd conclusion that Google Timeline, which has been used in court as evidence for guilt, cannot serve as evidence of innocence in this specific case."

In the post cited by President Lee, Representative Lee argued that while the prosecution actively utilizes Google Timeline—which automatically records location data via smartphones—as evidence for guilt in other cases, they dismissed it as "unreliable" in the case of former deputy director Kim Yong.

The post also cited a recent court ruling that recognized a case of death from overwork as an industrial accident by accepting Google Timeline as evidence.

Kim Yong, a close aide to President Lee, was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine in both the first and second trials on charges of receiving illegal political funds from private developers in the Daejang-dong project. The case is currently pending a Supreme Court ruling.

During the second trial, Kim's legal team presented Google Timeline as evidence to claim an alibi for the time the prosecution alleged the illegal funds were received. However, the court did not accept it, citing reasons such as the lack of a clear method to verify accuracy because Google does not disclose the operating principles of the timeline, and the possibility of distortion if the phone is powered off or location tracking is disabled.

The People Power Party criticized the President's remarks, stating, "This is blatant interference in the judicial process," and added that he has "crossed a line that must be respected."

(Video coverage: Jung Sang-bo, Ha Ryung, Yoon Hyung | Video editing: Park Sun-soo | Design: Kim Han-gil)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.