Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was acquitted on Nov. 25 in his first trial of a perjury case in which he allegedly pressured a former mayoral secretary to make false court testimony in his favor. The verdict comes a year and a month after Lee’s indictment in October 2023. The court ruled that Lee’s interaction with the witness was more of a general “testimony request” than a deliberate “perjury request.”
The acquittal follows a separate ruling on Nov. 15, where Lee was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation period for violating the Public Official Election Act. The perjury case is the second verdict among the 12 charges Lee is facing across five separate cases.
The Seoul Central District Court‘s Criminal Division 33, presided over by Judge Kim Dong-hyun, found Lee not guilty of perjury. “When Lee spoke to witness Kim Jin-sung, he appeared undecided about the specific testimony Kim would provide,” the court said. “There is insufficient evidence to conclude that Lee was aware that Kim’s testimony would be false.” The court added, “It is difficult to prove Lee intentionally encouraged Kim to provide false testimony based on the evidence presented.”
Lee was accused of requesting false testimony from witness Kim Jin-sung during his trial for allegedly spreading false information under the Public Offices Election Act. Lee, as a candidate for Gyeonggi governor, said during a televised debate in 2018 that he had been wrongly convicted in the early 2000s of impersonating a prosecutor. This statement is related to a 2002 case where Lee, then a lawyer, was fined 1.5 million won for impersonating a prosecutor while calling the then-Seongnam Mayor to gather information on an apartment project scandal alongside a KBS producer.
