Ruling on Yoon Suk-yeol's Appeal of Two-Year Prison Sentence Due This Week

The Seoul High Court will hand down its ruling on the appeal of former President Yoon Suk-yeol this coming Friday, the 7th, in the case stemming from his first-trial conviction for violating the Political Funds Act by receiving free election opinion polling from political broker (a person who brokers interests through ties with politicians) Myeong Tae-kyun. Yoon was indicted on charges that, in collusion with his wife Kim Keon-hee, he received free opinion polling worth approximately 270 million won on 58 occasions from Myeong between June 2021 and March 2022, in violation of the Political Funds Act. The first-trial court found him guilty on 14 of those occasions, sentencing him to two years in prison and a fine of about 14 million won in confiscated gains.

The first-trial court found that a sequential, tacit meeting of minds had taken place between the Yoon couple and Myeong. It determined that even without a prior promise, Yoon had exercised influence over the ruling party's nomination of former Rep. Kim Young-sun as a form of repayment.

Kim Keon-hee, indicted on the same charges, was acquitted in both the first and second trials. The courts found it difficult to conclude that she had made a prior arrangement with Myeong or relayed the opinion polling to the former president. Kim's case is currently awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court's full bench. After the guilty verdict in Yoon's first trial, the special prosecution team led by Min Joong-ki requested that the Supreme Court postpone its ruling, and the court delayed the scheduled verdict in Kim's case.

With the husband and wife having faced the same charges but receiving split verdicts, the outcome of Friday's appellate ruling is expected to have ripple effects on subsequent Supreme Court proceedings and related cases, depending on whether the acquittals and convictions are overturned.