Former President Yoon Suk Yeol Sentenced to 2 Years in 'Free Opinion Poll' Case; Myung Tae-kyun Taken into Custody

[Anchor]

The court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison in the case involving so-called free opinion polls provided by Myung Tae-kyun. Myung was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and was taken into court custody.

Reporter Jung Hye-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

The Seoul Central District Court, Criminal Agreement Division 33, sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison today (July 13) for charges related to receiving free opinion poll results from Myung Tae-kyun.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of 13.96 million won from the former president regarding the opinion poll costs.

Former President Yoon was indicted on charges of conspiring with his spouse, Kim Keon-hee, to receive 58 free opinion polls worth a total of 270 million won from Myung between April 2021 and March 2022.

The court recognized that the former president and his spouse had received 14 of those opinion polls free of charge.

The court further determined that former President Yoon had promised the nomination of former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun to Myung in return for his help during the presidential election, and subsequently exerted influence over the party's nomination process through Jang Je-won, who was the chief of staff to the president-elect at the time.

The court ruled, "Such free opinion polls constitute a violation of the Political Funds Act, even in the absence of a written contract."

The court also stated, "Kim Keon-hee delegated the timing, content, and public disclosure of the opinion polls to Myung, and former President Yoon received reports on these matters and gave his tacit consent."

The ruling suggests there was a "sequential and implicit consensus between the former president and his spouse and Myung regarding the provision of the opinion polls."

While Kim Keon-hee was previously acquitted of the same charges in both the first and second trials, the court noted that "the charges against former President Yoon cannot be viewed as identical to those against Kim."

Meanwhile, the court sentenced Myung, who was charged with providing free opinion polls and soliciting nominations, to one year and six months in prison and ordered him to be taken into custody, citing concerns over the destruction of evidence.

(Video reporting: Yang Hyun-chul, Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.