Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon was acquitted on appeal of charges that a third party covered the cost of opinion polls on his behalf, reversing a lower court fine that would have stripped him of office. The appeals court accepted that the polling costs had been paid by a third party but found it difficult to credit the testimony of political broker Myung Tae-kyun, the central evidence that Oh had been involved in commissioning the surveys and arranging payment.
The 7th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court, presided over by Senior Judge Ku Hoe-keun, on the 23rd overturned all guilty findings from the first trial and acquitted Oh, former Seoul Vice Mayor for Political Affairs Kang Chul-won, and businessman Kim Han-jung, known as a backer of the mayor. All three had been indicted on charges of violating the Political Funds Act.
The court accepted that Oh and Kang met Myung on several occasions, received some of the polling results, and that Kim paid for the surveys. It held, however, that those circumstances alone were not enough to conclude that Oh commissioned the polls and directed someone else to pay for them.
"It is not that there are no circumstances raising suspicion of guilt, given that it has been objectively established that Oh Se-hoon and Kang Chul-won met Myung Tae-kyun several times, that some of the polling was shared afterward, and that the backer Kim Han-jung paid the money," the court said. "But it is difficult to grant credibility to the testimony of Myung Tae-kyun, which is effectively the sole key piece of evidence, and fragmentary facts alone fall short of establishing the charges in this case."
Oh was sent to trial on charges that he commissioned 10 rounds of opinion polling from Myung ahead of the April 7, 2021, Seoul mayoral by-election and had Kim bear the cost on his behalf. The lower court had fined Oh 10 million won, a penalty that would have cost him the mayoralty. Shortly after the acquittal, Oh said, "I will work even harder to repay the trust of the citizens and live up to it." The team of special counsel Min Joong-ki objected to the ruling and said it would appeal immediately to the Supreme Court.
The People Power Party, meanwhile, described the acquittal as a case of justice prevailing. In a statement, chief party spokesperson Park Chung-kwon said, "It is a great relief, and only natural, that the Oh Se-hoon administration entrusted by 10 million Seoul citizens through their votes can now continue without disruption," adding that "the appeals ruling in the mayor's case is justice taking its proper course."