Yoon Sentenced to 2 Years in First Trial for Receiving Free Opinion Polls... Myung Taekyun Gets 1 Year and 6 Months, Taken Into Custody in Court

Yoon and Myung Tae-kyun Announce Intent to Appeal Immediately After Sentencing

Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was brought to trial on charges of receiving public opinion surveys free of charge from Myung Tae-kyun, has been sentenced to a prison term in the first trial.

On July 13, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 33 (Presiding Judge Lee Jin-gwan) sentenced former President Yoon, who was indicted on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, to two years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of 13,963,600 won. Myung, who was tried together with Yoon, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and was immediately taken into custody in court due to concerns about evidence destruction.

The court determined that, out of the public opinion surveys provided by Myung to former President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon-hee, 14 instances constituted violations of the Political Funds Act.

The court defined former President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon-hee as joint principals and a political community under the Political Funds Act. According to the court, Kim discussed the timing and methods of conducting the surveys with Myung, and former President Yoon was aware of this and gave implicit consent, resulting in a sequential and tacit agreement with Myung.

In particular, the court found that former President Yoon exercised substantive influence over the nomination of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun at Myung's request as a quid pro quo for receiving the free public opinion surveys.

The verdict was also based on the fact that former President Yoon and his wife believed Myung to be an election expert who made decisive contributions to the victories of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and party leader Lee Jun-seok. The court found that the Yoon couple sought to meet Myung in order to receive public opinion surveys and analytical help regarding the election landscape.

The court stated, "The free provision of public opinion surveys creates collusion with survey institutions, leads to distortion, undermines the fairness of elections, and poses a serious threat to democracy." The court also noted, "For four unpublished surveys, Myung falsified the sample data, resulting in distorted outcomes, and for the published surveys, the samples were constructed in favor of former President Yoon." The court added that former President Yoon showed no remorse, repeatedly responding to investigative agencies and the court by saying, "If you have evidence, present it."

Both former President Yoon and Myung's sides expressed their intention to appeal immediately after the sentencing. Yoon's defense lawyer stated, "There are numerous aspects that are difficult to accept both legally and factually," and added, "We will contest this on appeal." Myung's side also stated, "There are misunderstandings of the law that conflict with Supreme Court precedents, and we will appeal to correct them."

Former President Yoon was indicted in December of last year on charges of conspiring with his wife to receive public opinion surveys worth a total of 270 million won free of charge from Myung between June 2021 and March 2022. During the same period, Myung was charged with donating public opinion surveys free of charge to the Yoon couple.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.