(LEAD) Opposition leader sentenced to suspended prison term for election law violation

(ATTN: UPDATES with sentence; CHANGES headline, photo)
By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- A court on Friday sentenced opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to a suspended one-year prison term for lying during the previous presidential campaign when he was a candidate, a ruling that if upheld will strip him of his parliamentary seat and bar him from running in the next presidential election in 2027.

The Seoul Central District Court delivered the ruling, saying Lee, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), is guilty of making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

Lee is accused of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city's mayor.

Lee is also accused of lying during a parliamentary audit of the Gyeonggi provincial government in October 2021 that he was under pressure from the land ministry to rezone the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Seongnam. The site was later developed into apartment complexes by a private developer, and allegations were raised that Lee rezoned the land to give preferential treatment to the company.

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