Special Prosecutor Requests 4-Year Prison Term for Yoon Seok-yeol in 'Myung Taekyoon Poll Case'...Sentencing on the 7th of Next Month

Three-Year Sentence Recommended for Myung Taekyoon
Yoon: "Manipulation of Polls Is Unthinkable"

The special prosecutor team led by Min Jungki has requested a four-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was indicted on charges of receiving free public opinion poll services from political broker Myung Taekyoon, in his appeal trial as well.

Former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was indicted on charges of receiving public opinion polls free of charge from political broker Myung Taekyun, is listening to the verdict at the first trial held on the 13th at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu. Photo by Yonhap News Agency, provided by Seoul Central District Court

On September 11, at the sentencing hearing for the violation of the Political Funds Act held at the Seoul High Court’s Criminal Division 7 (Presiding Judge Koo Hoegeun), the special prosecutor's office asked for a sentence of four years in prison and forfeiture of 137.2 million won for former President Yoon. For Myung, who was prosecuted together, they requested a three-year prison sentence. Both sentencing recommendations are the same as those at the first trial.

The special prosecutor argued that the part of the case related to the polling services provided, for which the lower court found Yoon not guilty, should in fact be considered a conviction. The prosecution stated, “Former President Yoon not only received the poll results but also closely coordinated with Myung regarding survey methods and media,” adding, “He undermined the fairness of representative democracy and the candidate nomination process within political parties.”

In contrast, former President Yoon denied the charges in his final statement, saying, “I was already leading almost every poll, so manipulation of public opinion polls does not make sense,” and added, “Neither my wife nor I have the ability to analyze public opinion polls.”

Former President Yoon was indicted on charges of conspiring with his wife Kim Keon Hee to receive 58 public opinion polls valued at approximately 270 million won from Myung free of charge between June 2021 and March 2022.

At the first trial, only 14 polls that Myung delivered directly to Yoon and his wife were judged to constitute a violation, and Yoon was sentenced to two years in prison. The verdict in the appeal trial is scheduled for October 7.

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