KOR
▲ Former President Yoon Suk-yeol attends the first-instance sentencing hearing for charges of violating the Public Official Election Act at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on July 27.
The appeal trial for former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first instance on charges of making false statements during the 20th presidential election campaign, is set to begin on the 8th of next month.
Criminal Division 2-1 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Baek Seung-yeop, Hwang Seung-tae, and Kim Young-hyun) has scheduled the first appeal hearing for former President Yoon for the 8th of next month.
On July 27, the first-instance court found former President Yoon guilty on all charges, sentencing him to one year and six months in prison with a three-year probation period.
Former President Yoon is accused of making false statements during a Kwanhun Club-invited debate on December 14, 2021, when he was a presidential candidate, to the effect that he "had never introduced attorney Lee, a former prosecutor from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, to former police station chief Yoon Woo-jin."
He is also accused of publicizing false information during an interview at the launch ceremony of the Buddhism Leaders Forum on January 17, 2022, stating that he "was introduced to Jeon Seong-bae, known as Geonjin Beobsa, by a party official and has never met him together with First Lady Kim Keon-hee."
According to the Public Official Election Act, if a presidential candidate is elected or receives 15 percent or more of the votes, the full amount of election expenses is reimbursed. However, if a sentence of a fine of 1 million won or more for an election crime is finalized and the election is nullified, the political party must return the reimbursed election expenses.
Consequently, if the first-instance sentence is finalized, the People Power Party will be required to return 39.7 billion won in election expenses reimbursed during the presidential election to the National Election Commission.
(Photo provided by the Seoul Central District Court, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
