Lee Jae-myung's Court Document Delay Raises Concerns

Lee Jae-myung (이재명), the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has not received the court documents related to his alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act 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 regarding the receipt of the case records related to the election law violation to Lee on March 31. This document serves as an official notice that the appeal case has been filed with 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 deliver the notification of the case record receipt, a notice for the appointment of a public defender, and copies of the appeal documents.

While Lee's failure to receive these documents does not immediately disrupt the Supreme Court's proceedings, it could lead to delays in the overall schedule if he does not engage actively in the case moving forward.

Under criminal procedure law, 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. 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 will also 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 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 the late Kim Moon-ki, the head of the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, and for claiming that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport coerced him into changing the land use of the Baekhyeon-dong site. The first trial sentenced him to one year in prison with a two-year probation, but the second trial acquitted him on March 26. The prosecution subsequently filed an appeal, and the case was submitted to the Supreme Court on March 28.