A former head of Busan's Saha District has been fined for campaigning for a specific candidate while serving as a public official during last year's parliamentary elections.
The Supreme Court's First Division, presided over by Justice Seo Kyung-hwan, on the 3rd upheld a lower court ruling that fined Lee Kap-jun, former chief of Saha District, 5 million won. The court found Lee guilty of campaigning while holding public office but acquitted him of the charge that he had used his position as district chief to campaign.
Lee was indicted without detention in October 2024 on charges of campaigning as a public official, including making phone calls to officials of organizations receiving support from Saha District to ask them to help Lee Sung-kwon, then a preliminary candidate for the People Power Party, ahead of the 2024 general elections. Under the Public Official Election Act, public officials required to maintain political neutrality may not engage in campaigning and may not use their official duties to do so.
The first trial court sentenced Lee to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. It said his conduct was "highly blameworthy," noting that as the head of a local government he was obliged to ensure electoral fairness and political neutrality among his staff, yet instead used that position to campaign for a National Assembly candidate from his own party.
The appellate court overturned that ruling and imposed a fine of 5 million won. It found Lee guilty of campaigning while in public office but held that there was insufficient proof that he had used his position as district chief. The court found that Lee had regarded the person he asked to campaign as a junior from his hometown and that the request was closer in character to one based on personal ties than on the use of his office.
The Supreme Court affirmed the appellate ruling, saying there was "no error of exceeding the limits of the principle of free evaluation of evidence in violation of the rules of logic and experience, or of misapprehending the relevant legal principles."
An elected official whose election law conviction results in a fine of 1 million won or more loses office. When the violation occurs in someone else's election rather than the official's own, the result is loss of the post rather than nullification of the election. Lee, however, completed his term in June and did not run in the June 3 local elections.
