South Korea opposition leader indicted for misuse of public funds

Lee Jae-myung accused of misusing £60,100 in taxpayer money when he was governor of Gyeonggi province from 2018 to 2021

File: South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party Leader Lee Jae-myung leaves a court after his hearing, in Seoul (REUTERS)

South Korea’s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has been indicted on charges of embezzling millions from public funds when he was a governor.

Mr Lee, chair of the Democratic Party, was already facing four other trials for bribery and other charges mostly tied to a £790m property development scandal.

The allegations cast uncertainty over the prospect of Mr Lee running in the next presidential election. He is a firebrand liberal who lost the 2022 election to conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol by a thin margin.

He was indicted on breach of trust charges accusing him of misusing KRW106m (£60,100) in taxpayer money during his tenure as governor of the Gyeonggi province from 2018 to 2021, Yonhap reported, citing the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office which filed the charges on Tuesday.

Mr Lee has also been accused of allowing his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, to use a government vehicle for private reasons while labelling it as official usage.

Funds were also spent to pay for pricey meals, groceries or laundry for Mr Lee's family, but documented as expenses for meetings with public employees or overtime pay, according to Yonhap.

The Democratic Party condemned the indictment as "far-fetched" and a "scheme to kill the president's political foe".

Mr Lee was last week handed a prison sentence of a year, suspended for two years, for violating election law by making a false claim about a land development project in 2021 during his presidential campaign.

“It’s a conclusion that I cannot accept,” Mr Lee told reporters, adding that he would appeal the ruling in the high court.

Mr Lee faces the possibility of being stripped of his parliamentary seat and barred from running for office for a decade if the sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court.

“The prosecution’s intention is clear. It wants to tie the hands and feet of the leader of the largest opposition party who has overwhelming public support and confine him in court,” Jo Seoung-lae, a senior spokesperson for the party was quoted as saying by The Korea Times.

The ruling People Power Party said the case once again raised the question of whether Mr Lee was qualified to hold public office.

In a related case, a district court last week fined Kim Hye-kyung KRW1.5m (£8,500 ) for violating election law by offering a meal to several politicians' spouses using Gyeonggi provincial funds after Mr Lee launched his presidential bid in 2021.

Considered one of the most polarising figures in South Korean politics, Mr Lee, a former child factory worker who endured an industrial accident after dropping out of school, has often highlighted his rags-to-riches journey to political stardom.

However, his career has been overshadowed by scandals and allegations of links to organised crime. In January, Mr Lee survived a knife attack, sustaining a neck injury that required surgery.

In 2022, prosecutors indicted Mr Lee on charges of making false claims about two contentious development projects in Seongnam, where he served as mayor from 2010 to 2018, during his campaign as the presidential candidate.

Mr Lee has denied any wrongdoing and accused the government of Mr Yoon, a prosecutor-turned-president, of pursuing a political vendetta.

Additional reporting by agencies