Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks to reporters as he arrives at Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on June 17 for the final hearing in the first-instance trial over allegations related to polling commissioned through political broker Myung Tae-gyun. [Yonhap]
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks to reporters as he arrives at Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on June 17 for the final hearing in the first-instance trial over allegations related to polling commissioned through political broker Myung Tae-gyun. [Yonhap]

Aides to Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Monday called for an immediate halt to what they described as a media pressure campaign by the special prosecutor's team and the Democratic Party of Korea aimed at forcing a guilty verdict ahead of Wednesday's sentencing.

Oh faces a first-instance ruling Wednesday on charges of violating political funds law. He is accused of receiving polling results on 10 separate occasions from associates of political broker Myung Tae-gyun ahead of the April 7, 2021, Seoul mayoral by-election and having a donor cover the 33 million won ($22,200) cost.

Lee Jong-hyeon, a senior adviser for public communication at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, issued a statement Monday titled "Strongly condemning the special prosecutor's media manipulation to sway the court and the Democratic Party's interference with judicial authority." Lee said the collusion between the special prosecutor and the Democratic Party — which sought to turn a judicial process that should be decided strictly by evidence and legal principles in the courtroom into an out-of-court public opinion battle — "has again proven itself to be the worst kind of political manipulation, driven solely by a desire to inflict political damage and pressure the judiciary." He then said the Democratic Party's attempt to conduct a trial by public opinion just before a verdict — after exculpatory evidence had been emerging in court following what he called a flawed indictment — amounted to "a frontal assault on judicial justice and constitutional values."

Lee said the special prosecutor's "biased indictment" — which he said failed to properly investigate the illegal conduct of Myung and his associates while forcing Oh into the case as a victim who had cut ties with them — "will not escape public condemnation." He added that the special prosecutor and the Democratic Party were "maliciously framing" the case by insisting on similarities between Oh's case and that of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, calling it "a deliberate distortion of the facts and physical evidence."

Lee said the Democratic Party leadership's "brazen pressure on the court just before the verdict is incitement that cannot be watched with open eyes," and described the move as "a rain-dance-style political operation" that amounted to an abuse of legislative power.

He said conducting a poll through a survey firm associated with Kim Ou-joon asking whether Oh would be found guilty "is a modern-day kangaroo court and an absurd comedy aimed at manipulating the verdict through public opinion." He said the ruling party's attempts to influence the court just before the ruling — after the evidence it had relied upon for the indictment was undermined by exculpatory physical evidence in court — must stop immediately.

Lee added that Myung's one-sided testimony had been proven entirely fabricated, noting that even the court presiding over former President Yoon's case had found Myung to be "a person prone to gross exaggeration and delusion."

In closing, Lee said Oh's side had already presented objective facts and digital forensic evidence in court through the final hearing, proving his innocence through proper procedure. "Mayor Oh will calmly await a wise and fair ruling from the court, based solely on law and principle," he said.


ikson@heraldcorp.com