{"id":2207259,"date":"2024-11-26T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T23:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/?p=2207259"},"modified":"2024-11-25T18:23:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T09:23:52","slug":"seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul court acquits opposition leader Lee of perjury solicitation charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Korea&#8217;s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-korea-lee-opposition-leader-acquit-perjury-bd186751919fc15c76eb419168336e90\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">acquitted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Monday of charges that he pressured a witness to commit perjury, as the Seoul Central District Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove he had intentionally solicited false testimony. The case centered on allegations that Lee had asked a former secretary to lie in court about a 2018 election law case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court found that Lee&#8217;s communications with the witness appeared to be &#8220;more of a general testimony request than deliberate perjury solicitation,&#8221; though the witness himself was fined for providing false testimony. This marks the second verdict among five ongoing trials against Lee, coming just ten days after he received a suspended prison sentence in a separate election law violation case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>WHY IT MATTERS<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ruling and initial responses reveal a likely calculated strategy: Lee maintained a conciliatory rhetoric toward the courts, apparently aimed at avoiding antagonizing judges in his remaining trials, while his party staged rallies framing the cases as political persecution \u2014 allowing them to both fight the legal battles while keeping their support base mobilized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This approach appears to be working with the public; despite legal troubles, Lee continues to lead presidential preference <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.co.kr\/gallupdb\/reportContent.asp?seqNo=1516\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">polls<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at 29%, well ahead of ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon&#8217;s 14%. A Gallup Korea poll last Friday also <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.co.kr\/gallupdb\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">showed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the public almost evenly split on his election law conviction, with 43% viewing it as a fair ruling versus 42% seeing it as political persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lee faces other serious trials ahead, including allegations of an illegal transfer of funds to North Korea and corruption. Monday&#8217;s acquittal could provide momentum for his defense team, though higher courts could still overturn the verdict. This legal timeline becomes crucial as Lee and his party eye the 2027 presidential race. While positioning himself through <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/south-korea-weighs-fiscal-u-turn-as-yoons-term-hits-halfway-mark\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conservative-friendly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> policies like eliminating investment taxes and easing corporate regulations, his party appears ready to intensify its political offensive if needed. The ruling People Power Party&#8217;s immediate response urging courts to reach different conclusions in appeals signals continued political and legal battles ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-tags\"><a href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/tag\/domestic-politics\/\"><span class=\"tag\">Domestic Politics<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea&#8217;s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was acquitted Monday of charges that he pressured a witness to commit perjury, as the Seoul Central District Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove he had intentionally solicited false testimony. The case centered on allegations that Lee had asked a former secretary to lie in court about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5770,"featured_media":2207260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[27],"class_list":["post-2207259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-briefings","tag-domestic-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seoul court acquits opposition leader Lee of perjury solicitation charges - KOREA PRO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seoul court acquits opposition leader Lee of perjury solicitation charges - KOREA PRO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"South Korea&#8217;s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was acquitted Monday of charges that he pressured a witness to commit perjury, as the Seoul Central District Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove he had intentionally solicited false testimony. The case centered on allegations that Lee had asked a former secretary to lie in court about [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KOREA PRO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nknewsorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T23:00:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-25T09:23:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/11\/img_1732500559_UNXW5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1870\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeongmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@southkoreapro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@southkoreapro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"KOREA PRO\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeongmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#\/schema\/person\/66a3b705c65f3c50916a5c126f8a718c\"},\"headline\":\"Seoul court acquits opposition leader Lee of perjury solicitation charges\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-25T23:00:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-25T09:23:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/11\/img_1732500559_UNXW5.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Domestic Politics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Briefings\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2024\/11\/seoul-court-acquits-opposition-leader-lee-of-perjury-solicitation-charges\/\",\"name\":\"Seoul court acquits opposition leader Lee of perjury solicitation charges - 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