Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was sentenced to two years in prison in the first trial for allegedly receiving free public opinion polls from Myung Tae-kyun, has appealed the ruling.
Former President Yoon submitted his appeal to the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jin-kwan) yesterday, July 14.
Myung, who was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and taken into court custody during the first trial, also filed an appeal on the same day.
Former President Yoon's legal team stated that they plan to include arguments in their statement of reasons for appeal that the first trial court misunderstood the facts, misinterpreted the law, and that the sentencing was unfair.
Former President Yoon was indicted on charges of conspiring with his spouse, Kim Keon-hee, to receive 58 public opinion polls free of charge from Myung between June 2021 and March 2022.
On July 13, the first trial court acknowledged that 14 of the opinion polls mentioned in the indictment were received free of charge, sentencing former President Yoon to two years in prison and ordering a forfeiture of approximately 13.96 million won.
The court determined that there was a tacit agreement between the former president and his spouse and Myung regarding the conduct and provision of the opinion polls. It further concluded that even if there was no prior agreement, former President Yoon exercised influence to secure the nomination of former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun as a form of reciprocation.
However, the court ruled that the remaining 44 opinion polls could not be definitively considered as having been provided based on an agreement with the couple, as Myung did not deliver them directly.
This ruling stands in direct contrast to the case of Kim Keon-hee, who was indicted separately on the same charges and acquitted in both the first and second trials.
The courts in Kim's first and second trials acquitted her, ruling that Myung provided the opinion polls unilaterally without prior request or consultation for the purpose of business activities or expanding political influence for Mirae Korea Research Institute, the polling agency he operated.