Jung Yi-han's 'Faked Assault' Trial: Judgment of Electoral Influence Is the Key

Heard together with an accomplice by the 6th Criminal Division of the Busan District Court

The key to the judgment in the trial of Jung Yi-han, former Reform Party candidate for Busan mayor, who was indicted and detained on charges of staging a fake beverage-attack self-drama during the June 3 local elections, is expected to be the 'electoral influence' of the faked incident.

The general view of the legal community is that, given the nature of election crimes, the court's judgment on the overall impact on voters, beyond the incident itself, will have a decisive effect on sentencing.

According to the legal community on the 11th, the case of former candidate Jung, who was referred to trial on the 31st of last month on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act (dissemination of false facts) and obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means, was assigned to the 6th Criminal Division of the Busan District Court (presiding judge Im Sung-cheol).

The court plans to hear the cases of the two defendants—former candidate Jung and his accomplice, fitness trainer A (in his 30s)—together. The date of the first hearing has not yet been set.

Former candidate Jung and Mr. A are accused of conspiring in the 'fake assault self-drama' that took place near the Guseo IC in Geumjeong-gu, Busan, on April 27. It is cited as an unprecedented incident in the history of Korean elections.

Earlier, a charge of instigating a violation of the Public Official Election Act (obstruction of election freedom) was added to former candidate Jung following supplementary investigation by the prosecution.

The prosecution, having confirmed that the self-drama was carried out through former candidate Jung's plan and specific instructions, regards former candidate Jung's legal responsibility as grave.

The focus of the trial is expected to be a sentencing hearing that judges the electoral impact of the self-drama, rather than contesting guilt or innocence.

At present, it is difficult to predict the level of the sentence. While the prevailing view in the legal community is that avoiding actual imprisonment will be difficult given the gravity of the matter, the possibility of a suspended sentence cannot be ruled out considering various mitigating factors such as the fact that he is a first-time offender.

Attorney Kim In-won of Daeryun LLC (Law Firm) said, "If all the crimes are found guilty, under the concurrent-crimes relationship in criminal law, the sentence will be determined by combining the responsibility for each crime rather than evaluating them as a single crime," adding, "In sentencing, the planning and degree of involvement in the crime, the extent of the impact on voters' judgment, and whether investigative agency manpower was deployed are likely to be considered important."

Attorney Kim added, "Unlike ordinary criminal offenses, election crimes have a strong character of protecting the process of democratic will formation itself, so courts tend to weigh planning and electoral influence heavily," and "If the staging of a false situation is recognized, the key will be whether it can be seen as an act that distorted voters' judgment process and the functioning of public authority."

Reporter Kim Min-ji (mingya@newsis.com)

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