Anchor: Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has received a suspended sentence for violating the Public Official Election Act during his last presidential campaign. If the Supreme Court upholds this ruling, he will lose his seat and be barred from running in the next presidential election.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: The main opposition chief, Lee Jae-myung, is mired in two land development scandals in Seongnam City, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018.

Throughout his 2022 presidential campaign, he sought to defend himself from suspicions related to those cases.

On Friday the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee to one year in prison, suspended for two years, after finding him guilty of spreading false information in that regard in violation of election regulations. 

The court said Lee lied to lawmakers during a parliamentary audit in 2021 when he claimed the land ministry forced him to change the zoning regulations of the city’s Baekhyeon-dong area to permit the construction of apartment complexes between 2015 and 2016.
 
In media interviews in December 2021, Lee also denied his ties to an official of the Seongnam Development Corporation who was found dead in an apparent suicide amid investigations over another contentious property development project in the Daejang-dong area of Seongnam.  

While noting that Lee also lied in the media interview, the court said that lie did not constitute an election law violation.    

In rendering its verdict, the court said spreading false information before an election can distort public sentiment, and stressed that the court has a responsibility to prevent misinformation.
 
If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, Lee will lose his parliamentary seat as well as his right to run in the upcoming presidential election in 2027.

If the sentence ultimately stands, the main opposition Democratic Party will also have to reimburse the state election commission 43-point-four billion won, or more than 30 million U.S. dollars, for campaign expenses.   

This was only one of four criminal cases against the main opposition chief.

The others concern corruption in connection with the land development scandals and illegally sending eight million dollars to North Korea between 2019 and 2020 through the underwear manufacturer Ssangbangwool Group.

Lee’s supporters and DP lawmakers swarmed the Seoul court, saying he is the victim of a politically motivated investigation.

Lee said he is going to appeal. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.