The trial related to the bribery case involving Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, regarding payments to North Korea, will resume after four months.
The Suwon District Court plans to proceed with the preparatory hearing for the case of alleged bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes at 11:30 AM on the 23rd.
The trial was halted after Lee filed a motion to disqualify the judges last December 13th, and the proceedings are expected to resume four months later.
However, as the preparatory hearing is a discretionary procedure, it appears that Lee will not be directly attending the court.
Lee is charged with conspiring with former Gyeonggi-do Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young to cover costs of 5 million dollars for the “Hwanghae-do Smart Farm Support Project” and an additional 3 million dollars for governor visit protocol expenses, through Kim Sung-tae, former chairman of the Ssangbangwool Group.
Previously, Lee’s legal team sought to disqualify the panel of judges responsible for delivering a guilty verdict in the North Korea payment case involving the former vice governor, arguing that a fair trial could not be expected. However, the court dismissed the petition, citing there was no benefit to the application as a regular reshuffling had already changed the composition of the panel.
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