Mentioned 'Five Times': How the Supreme Court Rulings on Public Official Election Act Violations Differ for President Lee Jae-myung and Former President Yoon Suk Yeol

It has been revealed that the Supreme Court ruling on President Lee Jae-myung, who was tried under the same Public Official Election Act, was heavily featured in the first-instance verdict of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of violating the same act.

The 21st Criminal Settlement Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Cho Soon-pyo), while delivering its verdict on former President Yoon's Public Official Election Act violation charges on the 27th, cited the Supreme Court full bench ruling on President Lee's election law violation case delivered in May of last year a total of five times, using it as the basis for the guilty verdict.

President Lee was indicted on charges of publishing false information, such as stating during a broadcast interview when he was a presidential candidate that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in the Daejang-dong development project.

The Supreme Court remanded the case to the Seoul High Court with a guilty intent, ruling that such statements by President Lee constituted the publication of false information when viewed from the perspective of the overall impression given to voters.

Citing this Supreme Court precedent, the trial bench concluded that the remarks made by former President Yoon during his presidential campaign also constituted significant false information substantial enough to mislead the accurate judgment of general voters.

On the other hand, the legal principles from the ruling that acquitted President Lee were not applied to former President Yoon.

In another full bench ruling issued for President Lee in July 2020, the Supreme Court held that the charges were not established because President Lee did not have the intent to unilaterally and actively widely publicize false information.

Regarding former President Yoon's argument based on this precedent—that he similarly did not make remarks unilaterally with the intent to actively disseminate false information—the trial bench ruled that "the legal principles of this ruling do not apply as they are to this case."

The court stated, "The legal principles applied to President Lee presuppose a situation where expressions are inevitably limited in clarity as they are made impromptu and continuously, whereas the debate attended by former President Yoon was a debate in name only, formatted simply to answer panelist questions."

Some legal experts have pointed out, while comparing the trial rulings of the two former and current presidents on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, that the criteria put forward by the court for the publication of false information remain ambiguous.

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.