Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon arrives at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Aug. 21.YONHAP
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who was convicted and fined over illegal polling payments to a political broker, again denied the charges at the first hearing of his appeals trial.
The Seoul High Court held the first appeals hearing Friday for Oh and two others — former Seoul Vice Mayor for Political Affairs Kang Cheol-won and businessperson Kim Han-jung — on charges of violating the Political Funds Act.
The first-instance court fined Oh 10 million won ($7200) and ordered him to forfeit 21 million won. If the ruling is finalized, Oh will lose his position as mayor.
Oh was indicted on charges of receiving polling results from political broker Myung Tae-kyun 10 times ahead of the Seoul mayoral by-election held on April 7, 2021. He is also charged with having Kang, then his chief of staff, arrange for supporter Kim to pay about 33 million won in polling costs on his behalf.
The first-instance court found Oh guilty on some of the charges, concluding that he commissioned five polls from Myung and that Kim subsequently paid about 21 million won to Myung’s side on Oh’s behalf.
The court also found that Oh had been involved in matters such as selecting polling samples, as he sought results that would show him ahead of Rep. Na Kyung-won, his rival in the People Power Party (PPP) primary at the time.
Oh’s attorneys denied all the charges and argued that the lower court had erred in its findings.
“Oh never commissioned opinion polls from Myung or had his supporter Kim pay the costs on his behalf, and he did not even know that Kim had given money to Myung until the trial,” the defense said. “[The special counsel] took a few objective facts — that Oh had met Myung, that Myung conducted opinion polls related to Oh and that Kim, one of Oh’s supporters, gave money to Myung — and added vague speculation.”
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon arrives at the Seoul High Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Aug. 21.NEWS1
The defense argued that the first-instance court was wrong to accept even part of that account as fact.
Kang and Kim, who were indicted alongside Oh, also denied the charges, saying the special counsel’s claims differed from the facts.
The appeals court adopted Myung and former PPP emergency committee chair Kim Chong-in, among others, as witnesses. The next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28 and will examine Kang and Kim as defendants. A ruling is expected around Oct. 23.
“I will uncover the substantive truth and prove my innocence,” Oh told reporters as he arrived at court Friday.
Oh bolstered his legal team after the first-instance ruling by retaining seven additional attorneys from the law firm Lee & Ko.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
