The main reason the court acquitted Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon was its finding that the testimony of political broker Myung Tae-kyun — effectively the only key evidence in the case — lacked credibility. The appeals court also stressed a basic principle of criminal trials: when charges are not sufficiently proven, the decision must favor the defendant.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7, presided over by Senior Judge Ku Hoe-keun, on the 23rd overturned a lower court ruling that had fined Oh 10 million won ($7,000) for violating the Political Funds Act, and acquitted him.
The appeals court found fault with the lower court's approach of selecting only portions of Myung's testimony and accepting them as credible. "There are circumstances in which it is difficult to clearly separate the facts Myung experienced directly from the parts he described in exaggerated terms," the court said. It also found that Myung tended to deflect details damaging to himself with peripheral explanations, or to reinterpret his earlier statements in his own favor. Remarks Myung made after Oh announced he would file a criminal complaint — to the effect of "watch how I rope Oh Se-hoon in" — also weighed against his credibility.
The claim that Oh personally commissioned an opinion poll was also rejected. Myung had asserted that Oh called him in tears, saying he needed a poll showing him beating rival candidate Na Kyung-won. But the court concluded it "defies common sense" that Oh would have commissioned a poll — and gone so far as to raise the question of covering the cost illegally — when he had met Myung only two days earlier.
A transcript of a phone call between Myung and businessman Kim Han-jung, submitted during the appeal, was another decisive factor. In it, Myung told Kim: "Oh Se-hoon doesn't know. He doesn't know, so don't worry. I'll take care of it." The court noted that Myung's claim that Oh had commissioned the poll was inconsistent with the transcript. It did not rule out the possibility that Myung had conducted the poll on his own initiative to show off his influence.
The allegation that Oh asked Kim to cover the polling costs on his behalf was also not accepted. The lower court had reasoned that Oh must have given instructions, since the money was transferred before Kim and Myung had built a personal relationship. The appeals court, however, found it hard to accept the claim that Oh would have openly asked someone to cover costs illegally while taking on such political risk. It also viewed the fact that Kim sent the money by bank transfer as unusual for an illicit transaction.
"Where the prosecution's evidence falls short of establishing guilt with certainty, the decision must favor the defendant, even if some aspects remain unclear," the court said in explaining the acquittal.
The team of special counsel Min Joong-ki said immediately after the ruling that it would appeal to the Supreme Court. One lawyer, a former senior judge, however, said: "The Supreme Court gives maximum deference to findings of fact, so unless there is a legal flaw in how the evidence was assessed, overturning the ruling will not be easy."