Main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung has been found not guilty of making false statements as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election campaign.

On Wednesday the Seoul High Court overturned a ruling the Seoul Central District Court handed down to Lee in November imposing a one-year sentence, suspended for two years, for making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

The high court found that a statement Lee made during a media interview as the main opposition’s presidential candidate in December 2021, denying having known the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive at the Seongnam Development Corporation, did not constitute a false statement.

The court also concluded that Lee did not lie during a parliamentary audit as Gyeonggi governor in 2021, when he claimed the land ministry under the former Park Geun-hye government had forced him to provide preferential treatment to a third party when rezoning the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute.

Lee was indicted in September 2022 over the two statements.