Lee Jae-myung Fails to Receive Court Documents Again, Supreme Court Takes Action

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has not received the court documents related to his 'violation of the Public Official Election Act' case for a week. In response, the Supreme Court has decided to send a court officer to deliver the documents directly.

According to legal sources on April 7, the Supreme Court sent a 'notification of case record receipt' regarding the election law violation to Lee on March 31. This document officially informs him that the appeal case records have been received by the Supreme Court. However, since Lee did not accept the documents, they were ultimately returned.

As a result, the Supreme Court has requested that a court officer from the Seoul Southern District Court and Incheon District Court deliver the documents directly to Lee's home and office. This direct delivery, known as 'special delivery,' is used when regular mail fails. The court officer will hand over the notification of case record receipt, a notice for the appointment of a public defender, and copies of the appeal documents.

Although Lee's failure to receive these documents does not immediately disrupt the Supreme Court's proceedings, if he continues to be uncooperative, it could delay the overall schedule for the court's hearings.

Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the prosecution must submit the grounds for appeal within 20 days of receiving the notification from the Supreme Court, and Lee's team has 10 days to respond after receiving the prosecution's appeal grounds.

Even if Lee does not submit a response to the court, the Supreme Court will proceed with the case by appointing a presiding justice after the deadline passes. The court is expected to begin substantive hearings as early as early May. However, if Lee does not receive the prosecution's appeal grounds, the deadline for his response could be delayed, potentially pushing back the hearings.

This is not the first time Lee has failed to receive court documents. At the start of the appeal process, he also did not accept documents on two occasions, citing reasons such as being untraceable and being unavailable, raising suspicions of intentional delays in the trial.

Lee was indicted in September 2022 for allegedly making false statements regarding his knowledge of Kim Moon-ki, the late head of the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam, and for claiming that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport coerced him into changing the land use of the Baekhyeon-dong site. He was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation in the first trial, but was acquitted in the second trial on March 26. The prosecution has since appealed, and the case was filed with the Supreme Court on March 28.