Yang Gun-mo, a former Bareunmirae Party candidate for Nowon district chief, received a final ruling of suspended sentence for a fine after being indicted on charges of defaming National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik (then a lawmaker representing Nowon-B) and Climate, Energy and Environment Minister Kim Sung-hwan (then a candidate for Nowon-C) ahead of the 2018 local elections and the 2020 general elections.
The Supreme Court's Second Division, presided over by Justice Park Young-jae, on Wednesday dismissed appeals from both the prosecution and the defendants in two appellate cases involving Yang and his campaign manager, who were indicted on charges including violations of the Public Official Election Act, and finalized the lower court's suspended sentence ruling. A suspended sentence is a system in which the court acknowledges guilt but postpones the imposition of the sentence. If more than two years pass from the date of the suspended sentence, the case is deemed acquitted.
Yang was indicted on charges of sending text messages to voters that publicized false facts or defamed Minister Kim (then a Nowon-C candidate), Speaker Woo (then a Nowon-B lawmaker), and Nowon District Chief Oh Seung-rok (then a candidate for district chief) ahead of the 2018 local elections and National Assembly by-elections. All of the victims, including Minister Kim, were members of the Democratic Party.
The first and second trials sentenced Yang and his campaign manager to fines of 6 million won and 5 million won, respectively, and these rulings were finalized by the Supreme Court in February 2023.
Separately, Yang and his campaign manager were also indicted on charges of defaming Minister Kim and two others ahead of the 2020 general elections, and received fines of 10 million won and 7 million won, respectively, in the first and second trials.
However, in June 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled unconstitutional a provision of the Public Official Election Act (the "person intending to become a candidate" portion of Article 251) that punishes acts of defaming individuals who have not yet become candidates for public office, in a constitutional petition filed by Yang's side.
Accordingly, a retrial was held for the case in which the fines had been finalized by the Supreme Court. The separately indicted case, which was pending before the appellate court, was remanded. In February this year, the Seoul High Court suspended sentences of a 3 million won fine for Yang and a 2.5 million won fine for the campaign manager in each of the two cases.
Both sides appealed again, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals, finding no error in such judgments. The Supreme Court reaffirmed on Wednesday its en banc precedent that prosecutors cannot appeal on the sole grounds that a suspended sentence is unjust. "Whether 'signs of remorse,' a requirement for a suspended sentence, are significant falls within the court's discretion," the Supreme Court explained. "Unless a case involves a sentence of death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment or confinement for 10 years or more, the appellate court cannot judge the appropriateness of the lower court's determination on whether signs of remorse are significant."
