Rep. Bae Jun-young, who was indicted on charges of conducting a pre-election campaign ahead of the 2020 April 15 general election, was acquitted.



The second part of the Supreme Court (Chief Judge Cheon Dae-yeop) confirmed the lower court's acquittal of Rep. Bae, who was accused of violating the Public Official Election Act today (27th).



Rep. Bae was handed over to trial on charges of appealing for support at the 'Ongjin County People's Day' event venue and Ganghwa-gun sports club event in May and August, 2019, ahead of the general election.



He is also accused of paying salaries to two employees of the Incheon Economic Research Institute, where he served as the chairman, and having them conduct election-related tasks, such as preparing for a publication commemoration, organizing local issues, and securing contact information for reporters for access to the National Assembly.



In the first trial, of the five charges applied by the prosecution to Rep. Bae, two were acquitted and the remaining three were exonerated (the criminal case was closed without a judicial decision).



The court found that some charges were grounds for acquittal as 'verbal election campaigns' were allowed due to the revision of the election law in December 2020, after Rep. Bae was indicted.



The second trial acquitted him of all charges, including the extent to which the first trial acquitted him.



This is because the Constitutional Court ruled that a provision of the old election law that penalized the 'verbal election campaign' in February this year, when the second trial of Assemblyman Bae's case was in progress, was unconstitutional.



The second trial judge ruled that the former punishment clause applied to Rep. Bae had lost its effect, so it should be acquitted rather than exonerated.



The second trial also acquitted Rep. Bae and four former employees of the Incheon Economic Research Institute who were handed over to trial.



The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, noting that there were no problems with the second instance judgment, such as misunderstanding of the law.



(Photo = Yonhap News)