# Supreme Court overturns Lee’s election-law acquittal and remands with guilty instructions

Date: 2025

## The fact

On 1 May 2025 the Supreme Court of Korea en banc overturned the Seoul High Court’s 26 March 2025 acquittal of [Lee Jae-myung](/people/lee-jae-myung) on Public Official Election Act false-statement counts (golf and Baekhyeon-dong) and remanded with instructions to find guilt. Sentencing was not completed before the 3 June election.

## Context

First-instance guilt 15 November 2024 sat as parent. Neighbouring Article 84 stay after the oath is a child. He did not sit as the Court. A remand with guilty instructions is still a dated legal finding, remaining later stay named.

District-court 15 November 2024 is the parent. Article 84 stay 9 June 2025 is a child.

The President of the Republic of Korea is head of state and of the executive, appoints the prime minister with [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) consent, and commands the armed forces. The National Assembly enacts statutes. The Bank of Korea sets the policy rate. Courts, including the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court, judge. Chaebol boards, US Forces Korea, and provincial governments share later series. A Seongnam mayoral youth dividend or debt moratorium is not a 2025 statute. A criminal case must be stored with exact charge and judgment status — an allegation, indictment, first-instance finding, appellate acquittal, Supreme Court remand, or Article 84 stay is not a completed conviction if appealed, overturned, or pending. He did not author Yoon Suk Yeol’s 3 December 2024 martial-law decree.

## Evidence and sources

Supreme Court of Korea carries the official instrument or communique. Yonhap News Agency records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is justice and [institutional corruption](/drivers/institutional-corruption): a completed apex finding that specified campaign remarks were false-statement crimes, remaining later stay named.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1 May 2025 Supreme Court remand with guilty instructions, independently reported.

Not established: a completed unique prison term, or that he was thereby already ineligible on 3 June 2025.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

He was the defendant and then presidential candidate. The High Court later stayed. Prosecutors share the file.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Supreme Court overturns Lee’s election-law acquittal and remands with guilty instructions, not a later speech about Supreme Court overturns Lee’s election-law acquittal and remands with guilty instructions.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Supreme Court overturns Lee’s election-law acquittal and remands with guilty instructions on 2025-05-01 is not a licence to treat every later Supreme Court of Korea communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Supreme Court overturns Lee’s election-law acquittal and remands with guilty instructions into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to The Supreme Court held. He was the defendant and then presidential candidate. The High Court later stayed. Prosecutors share the file. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Lee Jae Myung: https://factrail.ai/people/lee-jae-myung

## Drivers

- Institutional Corruption: https://factrail.ai/drivers/institutional-corruption
- Judicial independence erosion (court capture): https://factrail.ai/drivers/justice-judicial-independence-erosion

## Sources

- https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20250501000453315
- https://www.scourt.go.kr/eng/main/Main.work

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/kr-lee-sc-remand-2025