An Incheon court acquitted main opposition Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Kim Kyung-hyup of charges over an unauthorized land purchase within a permit-required area.

The Incheon District Court on Friday reversed a lower court ruling against Kim, who faced charges of violating the real estate registration law and was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

Former labor minister Lee Sang-soo, who had been handed a suspended four-month sentence for selling the land to Kim, was also acquitted.

The appellate bench said Kim and Lee signed the transaction agreement on the premise that authorization would be secured, which appears to have been a possibility, while also noting a lack of evidence to prove that the real estate transaction was illicit.

The first trial in May ended with a conviction for Kim and the suspended sentence, which was heavy enough to strip him of his parliamentary seat if upheld by the Supreme Court.

The three-term lawmaker was accused of signing a deal to purchase 668 square meters of land for 500 million won, or around 383-thousand U.S. dollars, in a designated zone in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province from Lee in May 2020 without getting municipal permission.

The land was selected as a site for a public development project, and one-point-one billion won was later offered to buy up the land.