Ex-Prime Minister's conviction overturned
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo answers reporters’ questions at the Seoul High Court Tuesday, after the court overturned a jail term handed down to Lee and acquitted him of allegations that he received a bribe from a businessman. / Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
An appellate court acquitted former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo of bribery, Tuesday, overturning a lower court’s guilty verdict, citing a lack of credible evidence.
Lee was indicted in July last year on charges of receiving 30 million won ($27,000) in bribes from the late former Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung Woan-jong.
The Seoul High Court said the two key pieces of evidence — a recorded interview of Sung with a local daily and his suicide note in which he mentioned eight high profile politicians he allegedly bribed — do not prove Lee’s guilt.
The court said Sung, who had been under the prosecution’s investigation for the failed energy diplomacy under the former Lee Myung-bak administration, could have made false statements about Lee during the interview out of rage and frustration against him.
“The late Sung harbored a grudge against Lee to a great degree as he believed that Lee was behind the investigation,” the court said.
It said the note Sung left behind also lacked details. Besides the names of the seven other politicians, Sung wrote the amounts of the bribes he allegedly offered to them, but besides Lee’s name, he did not write anything.
“He would have written the amount if he had clearly remembered it. Considering that Sung had a grudge against Lee at that time, there was no reason for him not to write the amount,” the court said.
Inconsistent testimonies by Sung’s chauffeur and secretary were also in favor of Lee, the court added.
After the ruling, Lee said the prosecution should not abuse its power.
“I offer my apology to the public for causing this concern. Also, when I said last year that I would stake my life if evidence against me emerges, that was because I was confident about my innocence,” he said.
The prosecution plans to appeal.
Earlier in January, the lower court recognized the credibility of all the evidence and sentenced Lee to eight months in prison suspended for two years, and ordered the forfeiture of 30 million won in illicit gains.
The high court ruling comes only weeks after another of the eight figures, South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for receiving 100 million won from Sung. He was not put behind bars immediately, being allowed to remain free until the appeals process is completed.
For Hong, the local court had other evidence than the recorded interview of Sung and his note — testimony from Sung’s aide, who said he delivered the kickback to Hong.
Lee and Hong were the only two indicted among the eight people mentioned in the suicide note, with the rest avoiding indictment due to the expired statute of limitations or for lack of evidence.