The case of Lee Jae-myung transferring funds to North Korea may be halted due to a motion to suspend the judge's decision (South Korea)

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, who was indicted as an accomplice in the "Sanbanul North Korea remittance" third-party bribery case, has filed a motion to recuse himself from the judgeship.
The petition is filed under Article 18 of the Criminal Procedure Law when there is a risk that a judge will conduct an unfair trial, and it can take up to two to three months for a decision to be made.
According to a South Korean legal source on the 16th, Lee's side submitted a petition to the Suwon District Court Criminal Division 11 on the 13th to vacate the three judges.
The court was handling the case of suspected third-party bribery under the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specified Crimes related to remittances to North Korea, violations of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and violations of the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act.
The fourth pretrial hearing scheduled for the 17th is expected to go ahead as planned, with the representative lawyers attending and
Lee's side said that the same court had already handed down a guilty verdict in the first instance against former Vice Governor of Peace Lee Hwayeong of Gyeonggi Province, who was indicted in the same case.
The lawyers for Lee have argued that continuing the trial of Lee's case violates the principle of presumption of innocence. Meanwhile, Lee's lawyers have filed a petition to the court in September to reassign a trial chamber.
However, the court rejected the application, citing a lack of clear practical or legal grounds.
He pointed out that the court considered these issues in advance and then met with Lee face-to-face, adding, "From a lawyer's point of view, it would only be fair if the court conducted the trial with a clean slate, with no prior knowledge."
If the challenge to a judge is clearly intended to delay the trial, it may be summarily rejected by the relevant chamber; otherwise, it may be reassigned to another chamber of the same court.
The judge will then decide on the case. Appeals and re-appeals are possible, and if the Supreme Court decides on it, it will take two to three months. Former Vice Governor I also filed a motion to vacate the previous trial, and
As a result, the trial was halted and delayed for 77 days.