Prosecutors on Friday sought a two-year prison sentence for Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, around two years after he was indicted for making false statements during the 2022 presidential election campaign.
The court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Nov. 15.
In the final hearing at the Seoul Central District Court, prosecutors urged the court to impose the sentence, accusing Lee of violating the Public Official Election Act.
"The defendant repeatedly lied to the public during the 20th presidential election in an attempt to secure the presidency, making this a particularly grave matter," the prosecutors stated, emphasizing that Lee’s false statements, delivered through widely broadcast platforms, had a "substantial impact on voters' decisions."
Prosecutors further underscored that "it is crucial to impose strict punishment on anyone who distorts voter choice through falsehoods, regardless of their status or position, to uphold the constitutional values of election fairness and democracy."
Lee was indicted in September of 2022 on charges of making false statements during the 2022 presidential campaign about a high-profile land development project pursued by the Seongnam city government during his term as mayor from 2014 to 2017.
Upon arriving at court for the closing hearing of his first trial, Lee accused prosecutors of fabricating the charges against him.
"All these affairs will go down in history, and the public will decide for themselves," Lee told reporters, surrounded by Democratic Party lawmakers who came to support him at the hearing. "The court, the last bastion of human rights and democracy, will correctly determine the truth of the case and reach a just conclusion," Lee added.
As the first of four legal battles Lee is currently facing, this trial's outcome is particularly significant, with the potential to impact his political leadership and shape the broader political landscape in South Korea.
In Korea, spreading false information to get a candidate elected is punishable by imprisonment with labor for up to five years or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won ($23,000).
With a two-year prison sentence demanded, Lee will lose his parliamentary seat if the sentence is confirmed. Additionally, his eligibility to run for office will also be revoked for five years, effectively preventing him from participating in the 2027 presidential election.
The ruling party called for an appropriate and impartial sentencing during a meeting at the National Assembly on Friday.
The ruling People Power Party's floor leader, Choo Kyung-ho, requested that "the court deliver a fair verdict based on law and common sense, devoid of political calculations." Choo also criticized the delay in concluding the first trial related to Lee's case, noting it took two years instead of the legally prescribed one year.
Prosecutors charged Lee with making false remarks in violation of the Public Official Election Act for stating during a television interview in December 2021 that he did not know Kim Moon-ki, who was then a senior development official from a state-run company dedicated to land development in Daejang-dong, a district in southern Gyeonggi Province, while he was mayor.
The land development project was at the center of a scandal that plagued Lee during the presidential election, with allegations that Seongnam granted favors to a private developer to secure the lucrative apartment development in the city's Daejang-dong district and reap a windfall.
Kim was found dead in December 2021 at his office while under investigation.
Lee is also accused of falsely claiming during a parliamentary session in October 2021 that rezoning to turn a green belt into houses for a separate development project in Seongnam's Baekhyeon-dong district in the mid-2010s in Gyeonggi Province was the result of coercion by the Land Ministry.
