Court Assigns Lee Jae-myung 'Perjury Coaching Charges' to Daejang and Baekhyeon-dong Trial Divisions

Seoul Central District Court Assigns Criminal Division 33 for 'Corruption Cases'
Allegations Involving Daejang, Wirye, Baekhyeon, and Seongnam FC to Be Heard by One Panel

The perjury coaching trial of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has been assigned to the court handling the Daejang-dong and Wirye development preferential treatment cases and the Baekhyeon-dong development corruption allegations. However, the court has not yet decided whether to consolidate the three cases for trial.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, is entering the courthouse to attend the trial on the 17th at the Seoul Central District Court regarding the preferential treatment in the Daejang-dong and Wirye New Town development and the allegations related to Seongnam FC sponsorship funds. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

On the 17th, the Seoul Central District Court announced that it assigned the perjury coaching case against Lee, which the prosecution indicted the day before, to Criminal Division 33 (Chief Judge Kim Dong-hyun). After a review decision, the Central District Court decided to assign the case to the court handling the Daejang-dong and related cases. Criminal Division 33 specializes in corruption cases.

According to the prosecution, Lee is accused of repeatedly calling Mr. Kim between December 22 and 24, 2018, and requesting him to commit perjury in a trial concerning false statements under the Public Official Election Act related to Lee’s past ‘impersonation of a prosecutor’ case.

In 2002, while working as a lawyer, Lee was indicted for impersonating a prosecutor in collusion with KBS PD Choi Cheol-ho, who was covering the ‘Bundang Parkview preferential sale case’ involving then-mayor Kim Byung-ryang, and was fined 1.5 million won in December 2004.

Later, in May 2018, during a TV debate for the Gyeonggi Province governor candidate, Lee was prosecuted for publicly making false statements by claiming, "The PD was impersonating, and since I was being interviewed nearby, I was falsely accused of helping him." To clear the charges, Lee reportedly called Kim Jin-sung, who was the secretary to former Mayor Kim, and repeatedly explained his unilateral claims.

The prosecution believes that despite Mr. Kim repeatedly stating he was unaware of the situation, Lee pressured him to commit perjury by saying things like, "It would be best if you say that KBS and Mayor Kim Byung-ryang’s side discussed this issue extensively and had some understanding," and "You can just say you heard that." The prosecution confirmed multiple circumstances related to this during the investigation.

Ultimately, on February 14, 2019, Mr. Kim appeared in court as a witness for Lee’s side and gave false testimony favorable to Lee, inconsistent with his memory. Lee was acquitted by the Supreme Court on October 24 of the following year.

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