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| Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung answers reporters' questions before entering the Suwon High Court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
The Suwon High Court fined Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung 3 million won ($2,500), Friday, for making a "false claim" in his election campaign last year.
This decision puts the ruling party politician, who is said to be a future presidential contender, at risk of losing his governorship.
Unlike the lower court ruling in May that exonerated Lee on all charges, the high court found him guilty of making a false claim about his brother's forced hospitalization during a televised debate in last year's local elections.
Based on the election law, elected politicians in Korea are stripped of their position when receiving a sentence higher than a 1 million won fine for violation of the laws on election and political funds. Lee will have to leave the Gyeonggi governor post if the Supreme Court later upholds the 3 million won fine decision.
Prosecutors indicted Lee, 54, last year on four separate charges ― one for abuse of power as the mayor of Seongnam to have his older brother committed in 2012 and three of giving false claims about this and two other incidents during his governor election campaign last year.
According to the prosecution, Lee leveraged his mayoral authority over public health officials to prepare medical documents the forcible committing of his brother to a mental facility. A political calculation was suspected behind the move as Lee's brother Lee Jae-sun, who died of lung cancer in 2017, was a conservative who vehemently attacked Lee in the press.
Both the lower and high courts ruled the former mayor did not abuse his power but followed the legal process for public interest according to the relevant law, as Lee Jae-sun's use of verbal violence provided some legal grounds for hospitalization. The high court, however, ruled Lee's denial of the forced hospitalization in the lead-up to the local elections last year counted as making a false claim to the public.
"(Regarding the forced hospitalization,) Lee claimed something different from the truth during a televised campaign debate, distorting fact and giving false information that could mislead voters about the incident," the judge panel said.
Lee was charged with giving false claims on two other incidents he denied during the election campaign ― one of him impersonating a prosecutor in a phone interview while he was a human rights lawyer, and the other of exaggerating the financial gains of a regional development project he undertook as Seongnam mayor. The court dismissed both, saying they did not amount to spreading false information.
The ruling is a blow to Governor Lee, a presidential hopeful whose name has been floated for the 2022 race. A teenage factory worker and human rights lawyer, Lee is known for implementing progressive welfare policies in Gyeonggi Province.
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