The Supreme Court has assigned the appeal case regarding former President Yoon Suk Yeol's alleged violation of political fund laws to its Second Division. Yoon was convicted in the first trial but acquitted in the second, raising anticipation about the Supreme Court's ruling.
On November 9, the Supreme Court allocated Yoon's appeal case to a panel consisting of Justices Oh Kyung-mi, Kwon Young-jun, Park Young-jae, and Kim Sung-soo, with Justice Kim serving as the presiding judge.
The appeal will address allegations that Yoon and his spouse, Kim Gun-hee, conspired to receive 58 polling surveys worth approximately 270 million won from political broker Myung Tae-kyun for free between June 2021 and March 2022.
In the first trial, the court found Yoon guilty of receiving 14 of those polling surveys for free, sentencing him to two years in prison and ordering him to pay a fine of about 13.96 million won. Myung was sentenced to 18 months in prison in a separate trial.
Conversely, the second trial, held on October 7, acquitted both Yoon and Myung, concluding that the polling surveys could not be classified as political donations under the law.
The court determined that for a political donation to be valid, there must be a financial benefit, and it found it difficult to assess the surveys provided by Myung as a 'financial gain.' The surveys were deemed merely tools or evidence used in the process of providing political advice.
Additionally, the court noted a lack of evidence to support the existence of a prior agreement regarding the conduct and free provision of the surveys.
In response, the Special Prosecutor's team led by Min Joong-ki has appealed the second trial's ruling to the Supreme Court, arguing that the second trial's conclusion—that there was no mutual agreement between Yoon and Myung regarding the provision and receipt of the surveys—is difficult to accept.
Kim Gun-hee, identified as a co-conspirator and tried separately, was acquitted in both the first and second trials related to these allegations. Her case, involving what has been termed the 'three major allegations,' is currently under review by the Supreme Court's full bench.
Initially, the Supreme Court was set to rule on Kim's case in July, but following Yoon's conviction in the first trial that same month, the ruling was postponed and the case was referred to the full bench.
Given that Yoon and Kim are identified as co-conspirators, the core issues of both cases are intertwined, raising the possibility that Yoon's case may also be referred to the full bench.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.