Rebuilding Korea Party Slams Acquittal of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon as a 'Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card'

The Rebuilding Korea Party on Thursday criticized the appellate court's not-guilty verdict for Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was indicted over allegations that he received slush funds for opinion polls from embroiled businessman Myung Tae-kyun, calling it "sophistry that turns its back on judicial justice." Mayor Oh had been charged with violating the Political Funds Act, which governs the sourcing and use of money spent on political activities.

The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7, presided over by Chief Judge Gu Hoe-geun, acquitted the mayor at its appellate ruling on Thursday, finding that Myung's testimony — the only direct evidence on the key issue — was inconsistent and in many respects contradicted by objective circumstances, and that corroborating evidence was lacking. In the first trial, Oh had been sentenced to a fine of 10 million won — a penalty carrying the loss of his mayoral post — plus 21 million won in confiscation.

Party spokesperson Park Sang-hyun said in a statement, "Handing down an acquittal despite the clear existence of proxy payment of opinion poll costs and inappropriate collusion with a political broker will be recorded as a historic miscarriage of justice in which the judiciary itself threw away the scales of justice and issued a get-out-of-jail-free card for illegal elections and the taking of political funds."

Spokesperson Park also took issue with the divergence from the first trial's conclusion. "It is utterly incomprehensible that the appellate panel so feebly overturned a matter for which the lower court had held him strictly accountable under the law," he said, adding, "This verdict, which ignores the countless statements made by Myung Tae-kyun and the reality of proxy payment of polling costs through third party Kim Han-jung, departs far beyond the common sense and legal sensibilities of the people."

Park also maintained that legal acquittal does not amount to moral exoneration. "The fact that he barely slipped through the net of the law does not erase Oh Se-hoon's criminal suspicions and immorality. The very fact that he resorted to illegal means to win an election and sought to distort the public will has already been laid bare before history and the citizens," he said. He went on to demand that "rather than celebrating, Mayor Oh should kneel before the citizens of Seoul and apologize for shaking city governance and undermining fairness."