Song Young-gil arrested in court, sentenced to two years in prison for violating political funds law, not guilty of handing out cash (South Korea)

Song Young-gil, the head of the South Korean Pine Tree Party, was sentenced to two years in prison and detained in court for allegedly handing out envelopes containing cash at a Democratic Party convention.
He was found not guilty of the main charges, as the prosecution's evidence gathering process was deemed illegal.
On the 8th, the 21st Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court indicted him on charges of violating the Political Funds Act, the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Certain Crimes (bribery), and the Political Party Act.
Song was sentenced to two years in prison for his involvement in the scandal. In November last year, the prosecution sought a nine-year prison sentence for Song. There are two main charges against Song. The first is that in April 2021,
The prosecution alleges that Song had distributed 20 envelopes containing 3 million won each to members of the National Assembly in order to win the party leadership election.
In response, Song strongly denied that he was involved in the cash distribution.
The court ruled that there was a lack of evidence, as most of the core evidence submitted by the prosecution related to phone call recordings of Lee Jeong-geun, who was the party's vice secretary-general at the time.
The Democratic Party's cash-scattering scandal came to light during the investigation into Lee's personal misconduct. Lee was under investigation for bribery in July 2022, when he was arrested for three counts of bribery.
The prosecution voluntarily submitted two mobile phones to the prosecution without the issuance of a court-issued search warrant. Based on Lee's call recordings, the prosecution said that Lee had called the current Democratic Party leader around January 2023.
The investigation into the money-scattering scandal has begun. Lee is a close aide to Song and worked for Song's camp in the 2021 Democratic Party leadership election. Lee conspired with former Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Kwang-seok.
However, the court of first instance decided not to open an investigation into the Democratic Party's cash distribution scandal based on the recorded phone call file.
The scope of the evidence that Li voluntarily provided and agreed to be used should be limited to the investigation into his alleged bribery.
The court ruled that the prosecution would need to obtain a separate search warrant to investigate the case.
The first instance court stated, "The investigative agency that receives the voluntary submission of the information storage media must confirm the scope of the information from the submitter and
The scope of the house searches must be clearly specified. "The prosecutors must not destroy the phone recording files related to the cash distribution that they did not submit as evidence in the bribery case, but must keep them and submit them separately.
"It is unjust to have opened a related case without issuing and executing a search warrant at his home," he said. The second charge is that he received illegal political funds and bribes through a civic group.
He pleaded guilty, claiming that the 763 million won (about 8,248 yen) collected as donations to the group was in fact "political funds."
The defendant is accused of raising political funds in excess of the legal limit of 150 million won per year. The first instance court said, "Most of the members of the civic group are people who support the defendant.
The defendant also had personnel authority over key staff members," the court said. "The defendant intentionally induced sponsorship of civic groups and directly reaped the benefits."
Furthermore, “Legal systems such as non-profit organizations and designated donation organizations were used as a means to circumvent the regulations of the Political Funds Law.
"I was elected in the 2021 Democratic Party leadership election thanks to the organized support of civic groups that received the funds," he said, adding, "The Political Funds Act aims to prevent misconduct related to political funds and contribute to the healthy development of democratic politics.
However, he was found not guilty of receiving a bribe of 40 million won from a local businessman through a civic group to settle a complaint.
The first instance court found that the funds provided were separate from A's request for assistance with a pending issue for his company.
"There is a possibility that (Song) recognized it as something that was provided over the long line."