BREAKING Lee Su-jeong, People Power Party's Suwon-jeong Committee Chair, Maintains 3 Million Won Fine in Appeals Court…Cannot Run in 2028 General Election if Supreme Court Affirms

Lee Su-jeong, People Power Party's Suwon-jeong Committee Chair, who was tried for posting false allegations that President Lee Jae-myung's two sons received military exemptions on SNS, was sentenced to a 3 million won fine in the appeals court as well.

On the 12th, the Appellate Division 14 of the Suwon High Court (Presiding Judge Huh Yang-yoon) upheld the original trial's sentence of a 3 million won fine at the appellate hearing for Committee Chair Lee, who was charged with publishing false facts and defaming a candidate under the Public Official Election Act and defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

Committee Chair Lee was indicted for posting false claims on her SNS ahead of the 21st presidential election on May 28 of last year, stating that President Lee Jae-myung, who was then the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and his two sons all received military exemptions.

However, it was confirmed that both of President Lee's sons completed their military service obligations.

When the controversy emerged, Committee Chair Lee deleted the post and explained that she had briefly shared information encountered online but immediately deleted it after confirming the inaccurate facts.

However, the first trial court acknowledged intent, citing that the post had a significant risk of impeding voters' reasonable judgment and that Committee Chair Lee did not make efforts to verify the facts in the post.

Accordingly, Committee Chair Lee appealed against the first trial decision.

In the appellate hearing, Committee Chair Lee's side emphasized that the post was written with public interest intentions rather than the purpose of causing a candidate to lose the election, and that she deleted it immediately after confirming the facts and apologized multiple times.

In particular, at the determination hearing held on September 29, Committee Chair Lee apologized for her failure to doubt the false information despite having spent approximately 30 years verifying other people's statements, and appealed for leniency.

She also appealed to the concern that her long teaching career could end in dismissal depending on the trial outcome and that there could be disruptions to the academic pursuits of her graduate students whom she was mentoring.

Meanwhile, the prosecution requested that the appeals court dismiss Committee Chair Lee's appeal and uphold the original trial. The prosecution did not separately appeal the first trial decision.

With this appellate decision, Committee Chair Lee faces inevitable substantial constraints on her future political activities.

According to the Public Official Election Act, if a sentence of a fine of more than 1 million won is confirmed for election offenses, eligibility to run for office is restricted for five years. If Committee Chair Lee's 3 million won fine is finally confirmed, she will be unable to run in the 23rd National Assembly election held in 2028.

Committee Chair Lee ran as the People Power Party's candidate in Suwon-jeong in the 2024 22nd general election, engaging in a close race against Democratic Party Representative Kim Jun-hyeok but was defeated. Since then, she has been active as the Suwon-jeong Committee Chair.

In particular, Suwon-jeong, where the race was decided by a narrow margin in the last general election, is regarded as a region where both ruling and opposition parties consider securing competitive candidates important. If Committee Chair Lee's guilty verdict is finally confirmed, changes in the People Power Party's candidate lineup for the next general election appear inevitable.

However, since this decision is not yet confirmed, if Committee Chair Lee files a final appeal, the ultimate judgment will be made by the Supreme Court.