Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was sentenced to two years in prison for receiving polls for free from political broker Myung Tae-kyun, has filed an appeal.
According to legal sources on July 15, Yoon submitted his appeal to the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court the previous day.
Myung, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison and taken into custody during the first trial, also filed an appeal on the same day.
Yoon's legal team stated that the appeal will argue that the first trial court misinterpreted the facts and misunderstood the law, leading to an unjust sentence.
Yoon is accused of receiving 58 polls from Myung for free between June 2021 and March 2022, in collusion with his spouse, Kim Kun-hee. On July 13, the first trial court determined that Yoon received 14 polls for free and sentenced him to two years in prison along with a fine of 13.96 million won.
The court found that there was an implicit agreement between Yoon and Myung regarding the conduct and provision of the polls. It concluded that even without a prior agreement, Yoon exerted influence in favor of former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun as a form of compensation.
According to legal sources on July 15, Yoon submitted his appeal to the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court the previous day.
Myung, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison and taken into custody during the first trial, also filed an appeal on the same day.
Yoon's legal team stated that the appeal will argue that the first trial court misinterpreted the facts and misunderstood the law, leading to an unjust sentence.
Yoon is accused of receiving 58 polls from Myung for free between June 2021 and March 2022, in collusion with his spouse, Kim Kun-hee. On July 13, the first trial court determined that Yoon received 14 polls for free and sentenced him to two years in prison along with a fine of 13.96 million won.
The court found that there was an implicit agreement between Yoon and Myung regarding the conduct and provision of the polls. It concluded that even without a prior agreement, Yoon exerted influence in favor of former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun as a form of compensation.
However, the court ruled that the remaining 44 polls could not be definitively linked to an agreement between Yoon and Myung, as they were not directly delivered by Myung.
This ruling contrasts with the separate acquittal of Kim on similar charges in both the first and second trials. Those courts determined that Myung provided the polls unilaterally, without prior requests or consultations, as part of his business activities at the Future Korea Research Institute, which he operated.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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