A news broadcast reporting the appellate court's not-guilty ruling in Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's case involving allegations that polling costs were paid on his behalf is shown on a TV screen at Seoul Station on Friday. [Yonhap]
A news broadcast reporting the appellate court's not-guilty ruling in Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's case involving allegations that polling costs were paid on his behalf is shown on a TV screen at Seoul Station on Friday. [Yonhap]

The Democratic Party of Korea on Friday criticized an appellate court's decision to acquit Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on charges related to alleged polling cost payments under the Public Official Election Act, calling it a ruling "beyond common sense."

Senior Spokesperson Park Seong-jun issued a statement responding to the ruling, saying the appellate court had acquitted Oh of violating the Political Funds Act.

Park said the court "wiped away the payment charges wholesale by declaring the testimony of Myung Tae-kyun unreliable," and went on to say that "money the first-instance court recognized as illegal political funds has now been whitewashed by the appellate court."

He went on to say that the same appellate court had also acquitted Yoon Suk Yeol earlier this month in a separate case involving Myung's polling activities, asking, "Is this a court of law, or a 'not-guilty vending machine' that just keeps dispensing acquittals?"

Park said the ruling "sends a signal that even if you hand polling work to a broker and have a donor cover the costs, you can keep your elected seat," adding that "the judiciary has opened the door to a politics where elections are bought with money and brokers pull the strings."

He added that Friday's ruling "will become the spark for judicial reform," and that the Democratic Party "will see judicial reform through to the end, together with the people, without wavering."

Floor Leader Han Byung-do also posted on Facebook that day, calling it a ruling "that does not meet the common sense and expectations of the public" and expressing regret over the appellate court's decision to overturn the guilty verdict.

Han urged the special prosecutor to "immediately appeal and correct the appellate court's misapplication of legal principles," saying the court had "thrown out all existing legal reasoning and granted Oh a free pass by accepting only the one-sided arguments of his side."

Lawmaker Park Ju-min also posted on Facebook, asking, "Whose common sense exactly is the court referring to?" He said that "if rulings so detached from public common sense keep repeating, trust in the judiciary will inevitably be shaken," and called on the special prosecutor to "rigorously contest the evidentiary findings and legal reasoning in this ruling."


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