Prosecutors Abandon Appeal in 'Bribery Allegations' Against No Woongrae... Acquittal Finalized

"Rustling Money Envelope" Recording Ruled Illegally Collected Evidence
Prosecutors See No Benefit in Filing Appeal

Prosecutors have decided on the 28th not to file an appeal with the Supreme Court against former Democratic Party lawmaker No Woongrae, who had been put on trial on charges of taking bribes and illegal political funds and was acquitted in both the first and second trials. As a result, No's acquittal has now been finalized.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office announced, "We have decided not to appeal the appellate court's verdict regarding No Woongrae's bribery case and related charges." The office explained, "We took into account the recent judicial trend to more strictly assess the procedures and requirements for the voluntary submission of items seized from existing seizures as evidence, as well as the likelihood of reversal if an appeal were made." In other words, the prosecutors judged that even if they filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, the decision was unlikely to be overturned.

Former Democratic Party lawmaker No Woongrae attended the first hearing of the appeal trial held on February 4 at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The central issue in this case was a so-called "rustling money envelope" sound that was captured in a recorded audio file.

While investigating the solicitation bribery case involving Lee Jungkeun, the former Deputy Secretary General of the Democratic Party, prosecutors obtained a recording related to No Woongrae from the mobile phone submitted by the wife of businessman Park. Based on this evidence, No Woongrae was indicted without physical detention in March 2023.

No Woongrae was accused of receiving a total of 60 million won in five installments from Park between February and December 2020, allegedly in exchange for facilitating permits for logistics centers and providing business advantages for power plant supply deals.

At the time, Han Donghoon, then Minister of Justice and now Assemblyman, commented ahead of the National Assembly’s vote to permit No's arrest that "the rustling sound of the money envelope is captured exactly in the recording."

However, at the first trial held in November last year, the district court ruled that the recording obtained from the wife’s mobile phone was “illegally collected evidence” as it was acquired voluntarily during an unrelated criminal investigation, and thus inadmissible as evidence. The court stated, "The investigative authorities violated the warrant principle and lawful procedure in the process of obtaining the evidence, and the degree of violation is by no means minor."

The appellate court also ruled on the 21st that the audio file was illegally collected evidence and acquitted No Woongrae. Although the appeals court found some faults in the lower court's judgment regarding partial electronic data on the mobile phone, it concluded that the remaining evidence was insufficient to prove the indictment.

After the appellate court’s verdict, President Lee Jaemyung wrote on X (formerly Twitter), mentioning No Woongrae, "How could anyone but the person himself imagine the injustice and frustration he must have felt?"

Since November last year, following its decision not to appeal in the Daejang-dong development corruption case, the prosecution has repeatedly decided not to appeal acquittals in certain cases involving political figures.

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