Prosecutors Drop Appeal Against Roh Woongrae, Acquittal Finalized... Roh Says "Overcame Fabricated Prosecution" (Comprehensive)

'Money Envelope Rustling' Recording Ruled Illegally Collected Evidence
Prosecution Deems Appeal Unlikely to Succeed

The prosecution has decided not to file an appeal on August 28 regarding former Democratic Party lawmaker Roh Woongrae, who had been tried on charges of receiving bribes and illegal political funds but was acquitted in both the first and second trials. As a result, Roh's acquittal is now final.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office announced on the same day, "We have decided not to file an appeal regarding the appellate court decision in the bribery case of former lawmaker Roh." The office further explained, "We considered the recent judicial trend of more rigorous judgments on the legality and procedures of voluntarily submitted evidence from existing seizures, particularly in relation to related cases, as well as the potential likelihood of the appeal being accepted." This suggests that the likelihood of the Supreme Court overturning the verdict was deemed low even if an appeal were filed.

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

The central issue in this case was an audio recording, known as the so-called 'money envelope rustling sound' file.

During the investigation into the influence-peddling case involving former Democratic Party deputy secretary-general Lee Junggeun, prosecutors obtained a recording related to Roh from the mobile phone of a woman surnamed Cho, the wife of businessman Park, which Cho had voluntarily submitted. Based on this evidence, prosecutors indicted Roh without detention in March 2023.

Roh was charged with receiving a total of 60 million won on five occasions between February and December 2020 from Park in exchange for facilitating permits for logistics centers and providing business favors in power plant supply contracts.

At the time, Han Donghun, who was serving as Minister of Justice and is now a lawmaker, commented ahead of a National Assembly vote on Roh's arrest motion that "even the rustling sound of money envelopes is captured exactly in the recording."

However, the first instance court in November of last year ruled that Cho's mobile phone was 'illegally collected evidence' as it was obtained voluntarily during the course of another criminal investigation, and therefore lacked evidentiary value. The court stated, "Procedural violations by the investigative authorities in the process of obtaining the evidence breach both the warrant principle and due process, and the severity of these violations is by no means minor."

The appellate court also ruled on August 21 that the recording file was illegally collected evidence and returned a not-guilty verdict. While it noted an error in the first trial’s assessment of some of the digital information on the phone, the court held that the remaining evidence was insufficient to prove the charges.

President Lee Jaemyung mentioned Roh immediately after the appellate ruling on X (formerly known as Twitter), writing, "No one but the person involved can even imagine how unjust and painful this must have been."

Since November of last year, after giving up on appealing the verdict in the Daejang-dong land development corruption case, prosecutors have repeatedly chosen not to appeal acquittals in several cases involving politicians.

On this day, Roh Woongrae issued a statement describing the prosecution's decision not to appeal as "three years and nine months of pain, as if a blade pierced my heart, endured without yielding to politically motivated indictments and investigations by the prosecution, and ultimately prevailing."

Roh also stated, "I hope this serves as an opportunity to correct wrongful investigative practices, and brings a measure of courage, hope, consolation, and encouragement to the many victims who have suffered from prosecutorial abuse," adding, "I will take the lead so that no one again becomes an unjust victim of fabricated prosecutions or investigations."

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