Lee Hwa-young, former vice governor for peace affairs of Gyeonggi Province, who received a finalized prison term from the Supreme Court on charges including illegal remittances to North Korea, is considering filing for a retrial.
Lee's defense team is actively reviewing a retrial petition in the so-called "Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance" case, legal sources said on the 5th.
The lawyers regard as grounds for a retrial the emergence of National Intelligence Service documents that were not submitted as evidence at the time of the final ruling, as well as questions raised about the legality of investigative procedures during disciplinary proceedings against prosecutor Park Sang-yong, who handled the case. The fact that the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials is investigating a related case is also cited as a reason for weighing the petition.
Under Article 420 of the Criminal Procedure Act, a retrial may be sought against a finalized guilty verdict in cases such as when documentary or physical evidence that formed the basis of the original judgment is proven by a final ruling to have been forged or altered.
National Intelligence Service Director Lee Jong-seok told a parliamentary investigation into allegations of fabricated indictments in April that some reports on the North Korea remittances held by the agency under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration had not been handed over to prosecutors. Among the materials not submitted during the trial, he said, were documents containing intelligence suggesting that Ssangbangwool had attempted to prop up its stock price through North Korea business projects.
Park, who investigated the remittance case at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office at the time, denies the claim. Park maintains that he also seized and submitted to the court documents pointing to possible stock price manipulation by Ssangbangwool, but that they were not accepted because of low credibility. Park is currently subject to disciplinary proceedings at the Ministry of Justice over alleged rule violations during the investigation.
Lee was indicted on charges of receiving about 334 million won in political funds and bribes from Ssangbangwool Group between July 2018 and July 2022, and of conspiring in the group's $8 million remittance to North Korea. In June last year, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Lee to seven years in prison on charges including bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes and violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and to eight months on charges of violating the Political Funds Act.
