The Supreme Court of Korea announced Tuesday that it will hear the election law violation case of former Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung before the "grand bench," moving the case to a full-court review.
Though Lee's case was initially assigned to a panel of four justices, Chief Justice Jo Hee-de reportedly decided to examine the case in a full court session after considering the high level of public interest and national concern over the case.
South Korea's top court started to examine the case Tuesday afternoon, discussing how the upcoming trial would proceed.
The Supreme Court exercises its jurisdiction either as a full court, which is convened with more than two-thirds of the justices and the chief justice presiding, or in a panel of four justices, known as the "petit bench."
Most cases that are appealed to the Supreme Court are ruled by petit benches, but cases are referred to the grand bench when the petit bench is considered inappropriate for a ruling, fails to reach a consensus or the court needs to modify its previous interpretation and implementation of law.
If the members of the grand bench are not able to reach a majority opinion, then the Supreme Court cannot reverse the lower court’s ruling.
The Seoul High Court’s ruling over election law violation charges has been considered Lee's biggest legal challenge, as the decision was made prior to the presidential election, posing a direct threat to his eligibility to run for president.
The court acquitted the liberal presidential front-runner of violating the Public Official Election Act on March 26, overturning the decision of a lower court — the Seoul Central District Court — in November that had handed down a one-year prison term.
The March ruling temporarily cleared Lee’s legal hurdle in his bid for the presidency. The 61-year-old lawmaker could have lost eligibility to run for any public office for 10 years if the Seoul High Court upheld the lower court's ruling.
The prosecution filed the appeal against the lower court ruling in early April.
Lee was indicted for making false statements by claiming he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, former head of Development Division 1 at Seongnam Development Corp., during a televised interview as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in December 2021.
Kim was accused of involvement in a land corruption scandal in Daejang-dong, when Lee was the mayor of the city of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
This was at the center of the scandal that afflicted Lee throughout the previous presidential election, in which then-presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol, among other contenders, accused Lee of favoring a specific private developer for the project.
Meanwhile, Lee still faces four separate criminal trials tied to his successive terms as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province.
Lee is accused of corruption charges related to allegations during his tenure as Seongnam's mayor in the mid-2010s, misappropriating funds, perjury and illegal money transfer charges during his time as governor of Gyeonggi Province.
sj_lee@heraldcorp.com
