[Breaking] Seoul High Court delays trial of Lee Jae-myung until after presidential election

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, speaks at the kick-off of the party’s election campaign committee on April 30, 2025. (Yonhap)

The first hearing in the remanded trial of Lee Jae-myung on alleged election law violations that had been scheduled for May 15 has been pushed back to June 18, after the presidential election in which Lee is the frontrunner. 

The bench of the Seoul High Court that was assigned the case after it had been remanded by the Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it had changed the date of the first trial for the case to June 18, after the June 3 election, “for the sake of guaranteeing the defendant, a presidential candidate, equal opportunity in the election campaign and to dispel controversy over the fairness of the trial.”

The bench added that it had “long adhered to an attitude of trying cases fairly and independently based only on the Constitution and statutes, without influence or interference from within or beyond the courts, and will continue to do so going forward.”

The Democratic Party previously called on Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de to delay the trial of Lee, arguing that all hearing related to the trial of Lee should be delayed until after the presidential election on June 3 so as to guarantee “equal opportunity” on the campaign trail, as laid out in Article 116 of the Constitution. Lee’s legal team also submitted a request for the date of the hearing to be delayed on Wednesday. 

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]