Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Friday was acquitted by an appellate court of charges that he violated the Political Funds Act ahead of the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election, overturning a lower court's guilty verdict.
The appellate ruling cancels Oh's conviction by the lower court, which had imposed a 10 million won fine that could have cost him his mayoral post if finalized.
The Seoul High Court found insufficient evidence to establish that Oh had asked self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun to conduct opinion polls and arranged for his longtime supporter, Kim Han-jung, to cover the costs, overturning the lower court's findings.
“A criminal conviction must be based on rigorous evidence establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,“ the presiding judge said. “If the prosecution fails to meet that standard, the court must rule in favor of the defendant, even if parts of the defendant’s testimony appear questionable or raise suspicions,”
Oh was indicted last December on charges of receiving the results of 10 opinion polls from Myung ahead of the April 2021 by-election. He was accused of having Kim pay 33 million won for the results through Kang Cheol-won, who was Oh's chief of staff at the time and later served as Seoul vice mayor.
Prosecutors had sought an 18-month prison sentence and an order requiring Oh to forfeit 33 million won.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Oh in July to a 10 million won fine, and ordered him to forfeit 21 million won.
The lower court found that Oh had commissioned five opinion polls through Myung and arranged for Kim to cover the cost. In reaching its verdict, the court relied on Myung's testimony, which it found credible in parts corroborated by KakaoTalk messages and phone records.
The court also cited circumstantial evidence that Oh had contacted Myung about election strategy, that the poll results were delivered to Oh's camp and that his then-chief of staff, Kang Cheol-won, had been involved in reviewing the surveys. It also noted that Kim had paid substantial sums around the time the polls were conducted, despite having no close personal ties to Myung.
Both Oh and the special counsel team appealed the ruling.
During the appellate proceedings, Oh hired seven additional attorneys from Lee & Ko, one of Korea's largest law firms, and revised his defense strategy.
A key development in the appellate trial was the emergence of a recording of a March 2021 phone conversation between Myung and Kim.
Kim, who was accused of paying for the polls on Oh's behalf, submitted the recording to challenge the credibility of Myung's testimony.
In the recording, Myung was heard saying that Oh had no knowledge of the arrangement and assuring Kim that he would handle the matter himself.
Kim was heard saying he had acted on his own initiative because he genuinely wanted to help Oh, adding that no one from Oh's side had asked him to do so.
The special counsel team, however, argued that the recording may have been selectively edited to include only portions favorable to Kim and Oh.
Myung, who appeared as a witness, also maintained that the conversation concerned negotiations to unify Oh's candidacy with that of Ahn Cheol-soo, then the People's Party candidate, rather than the opinion polls.
Oh's legal team also challenged the admissibility of the evidence used to secure his conviction.
In its appeal, the defense argued that the lower court had based its guilty verdict on an alleged phone conversation whose existence had never been established.
The defense also claimed that KakaoTalk messages involving Myung, which the lower court had accepted as evidence, were unlawfully obtained by prosecutors in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, during an investigation into an unrelated case.
The special counsel team can appeal the acquittal to the Supreme Court.
Unless the acquittal is overturned, Oh will no longer face the prospect of losing his mayoral post over the conviction.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com