Prosecutors will make a final appeal to the Supreme Court regarding Wednesday's “not guilty” verdict for main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said it intends to seek to rectify the illegality of the High Court’s decision.
The state agency said the latest ruling does not conform with common sense and the empirical rule and displays an excessive discrepancy from the view of general voters.
The agency said it considers there to be illegalities stemming from misunderstanding of legal principles concerning the offense of publication of false information as stipulated in the Act.
The charges against Lee stemmed from a televised interview ahead of the 2022 presidential election, in which Lee denied knowledge of Kim Moon-ki, former head of Seongnam Development Corporation's project development team, during his term as Seongnam mayor.
Kim was found dead in the midst of an investigation into alleged involvement in the Daejang-dong development scandal.
The DP chief was also accused of making false statements during a parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province when he was governor in October 2021, over alleged favoritism surrounding another development scandal in the city's Baekhyeon-dong area.
The Seoul High Court acquitted Lee from all the charges, overturning a suspended one-year sentence from the first trial.