[Edaily Reporter LEE JI-EUN ] The final hearing in the appeal trial of former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s Public Official Election Act violation case—which determines whether the People Power Party must return 39.7 billion won in campaign funds—has been postponed.

The Seoul High Court’s Criminal Division 2-1 (High Court Judges Baek Seung-yeop, Hwang Seung-tae, and Kim Young-hyun) held a continuation hearing on the 29th in the case involving former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s alleged violation of the Public Official Election Act.

Originally, the plan for the day was to conduct witness examination of former Prosecutor General Yoon Dae-jin—the younger brother of former Yongsan Tax Office Director Yoon Woo-jin—and cross-examine former President Yoon as the defendant, followed by the closing arguments. However, the court determined that parts of former Prosecutor General Yoon’s testimony differed from what was initially recorded and decided to conclude the arguments at the next hearing.

The court stated, “Rather than rushing to conclude the proceedings, it would be better to prepare for the final cross-examination of the defendant and the closing arguments based on the witness testimony,” and set the next hearing for 10:00 a.m. on the 13th of next month. The court plans to conclude the case after conducting additional evidence examination and cross-examination of the defendant in sequence.

Earlier, during witness examination, former Prosecutor General Yoon testified that he was the person who connected attorney Lee Nam-seok with his older brother, former Police Chief Yoon. Regarding the circumstances, he explained, “My principle was that it would be inappropriate to take an interest in or offer advice while my brother was under investigation on corruption charges.”

When given the opportunity to speak, former President Yoon argued, “You should not view this as a malicious lie based on false facts,” adding, “I took the blame by saying, ‘It was me,’ to prevent my junior colleague from becoming the subject of controversy.”

Former President Yoon was indicted on charges of publicly disseminating false information regarding two separate incidents: first, his statement at a Gwanhoon Club-hosted debate in December 2021—while he was a presidential candidate—that he had never introduced former Chief Yoon to attorney Lee Nam-seok, a former member of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Division; and second, his statement in a media interview the following January that he had never met with Mr. Jeon Seong-bae, a Buddhist monk known as “Geonjin,” alongside First Lady Kim Keon-hee.

The first-instance court found him guilty on both charges and sentenced him to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years. If this sentence is upheld all the way to the Supreme Court, the People Power Party will be required to return the 39.7 billion won in election funds it received during the presidential campaign to the National Election Commission.

This is because, under the Public Official Election Act, if a fine of 1 million won or more is finalized for an election-related crime, the election victory is invalidated and the political party must return the reimbursed election expenses.