Ex-Gyeonggi official gets 4 months for parliamentary perjury
· UPIJune 20 (Asia Today) -- A South Korean court sentenced former Gyeonggi Province Vice Gov. Lee Hwa-young to four months in prison Saturday for falsely telling the National Assembly that prosecutors had provided alcohol during an interrogation.
The Suwon District Court found Lee guilty of violating the law governing testimony and evidence before the National Assembly.
The court, however, acquitted him of violating the Political Funds Act and dismissed an abuse-of-authority charge.
The case was heard as a citizen-participation trial lasting 10 days from June 8. Seven jurors considered the charges before delivering advisory verdicts to the three-judge panel.
Prosecutors had requested a two-year prison term and a fine of 5 million won, about $3,300. Jury deliberations began Friday afternoon and continued past midnight.
Lee had alleged that prosecutors allowed him and other defendants to hold a so-called salmon and alcohol party inside the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office while he was being questioned in connection with an illegal money transfer to North Korea.
He repeated the allegation during testimony before the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
The court rejected Lee's account, saying statements from other people who had been inside video-recording room No. 1313 were consistent while Lee's testimony lacked credibility.
Four of the seven jurors concluded that no alcohol had been provided and found Lee guilty of perjury. The court accepted the majority verdict.
Lee was also accused of conspiring with former Ssangbangwool Group Chairman Kim Seong-tae to make political donations to President Lee Jae Myung through other people's names during the 2018 local elections and the Democratic Party presidential primary in 2021.
All seven jurors found Lee not guilty of that charge, concluding that prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was involved. The court reached the same conclusion.
The court dismissed a separate charge alleging that Lee improperly ordered Gyeonggi Province officials to assist projects involving North Korea.
The jury found that prosecutors had not abused their authority by bringing the charge, but the judges disagreed.
The court said prosecutors abused their charging authority by indicting Lee as an accomplice only after former Gyeonggi Province Peace Cooperation Bureau Director Shin Myung-sup had been convicted in a separate trial.
The judges said Lee had effectively been deemed responsible in another person's trial without first being indicted and given a full opportunity to defend himself.
Lee's attorneys said immediately after the ruling that they would appeal.
Lee is already serving a separate prison sentence for his role in Ssangbangwool Group's unauthorized transfer of money to North Korea.
The Supreme Court finalized a sentence of seven years and eight months in prison and a fine of 250 million won, about $163,000, in that case last year.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260620010006981