Supreme Court finally rejects former lawmaker Lee Seok-gi's retrial request for 'sedition incitement'

Former Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok-ki.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The Supreme Court has also rejected the retrial request of former Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok-gi, who is serving a 9-year prison sentence confirmed in 2015 for charges of inciting rebellion and violating the National Security Act.

According to the legal community on the 29th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cheon Dae-yeop) dismissed the rehearing petition filed by Lee's side on the 26th, which challenged the court's dismissal of the retrial request.

Former lawmaker Lee was arrested and indicted in September 2013 on charges of conspiring to commit concrete acts to overthrow the Republic of Korea system while sympathizing with North Korea's theory of revolution against the South as the head of the Revolutionary Organization (RO) (charges of conspiracy to commit rebellion, incitement to rebellion, and violation of the National Security Act).

The first trial court found Lee guilty of both conspiracy to commit rebellion and incitement to rebellion, sentencing him to 12 years in prison and 10 years of disqualification. The appellate court acquitted him of the conspiracy to commit rebellion charge and reduced the sentence to 9 years in prison and 7 years of disqualification.

The appellate court's ruling on former lawmaker Lee was finalized by the Supreme Court's full bench in January 2015.

Earlier, former lawmaker Lee and other former Unified Progressive Party lawmakers filed for retrial in June 2019, citing evidence that the judiciary under former Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae had used their trials as bargaining chips in judicial dealings with the Blue House.

However, on August 6, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Yoon Seung-eun, Judges Kim Dae-hyun and Ha Tae-han) dismissed the retrial requests of Lee and six others.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.