Special counsel appeals Seoul mayor's acquittal in political funds case

The Korea Times reports that a special counsel team has appealed the acquittal of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon in a political funds case linked to the 2021 mayoral by-election. The appeal was filed with the Seoul High Court earlier in the day, a week after the appellate court overturned a lower court ruling to acquit the mayor of violating the Political Funds Act.

Oh had been indicted on charges of having a political supporter make payments totaling 33 million won for opinion polls he allegedly received from self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the 2021 election. The lower court found him partially guilty of the charges and sentenced him to a 10 million-won fine, which, if finalized, would have stripped him of his mayoralty.

However, the appellate court reversed the conviction, ruling that the credibility of Myung's testimony could not be fully trusted, and denying the credibility of Myung's testimony was unlawful.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.