Seoul:An appellate court is set to rule on Wednesday regarding former President Yoon Suk Yeol's charges related to receiving free opinion polls ahead of the 2022 presidential election.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul High Court is scheduled to announce its decision at 2 p.m. This follows a lower court's decision that sentenced Yoon to two years in prison for violating the Political Funds Act.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team indicted Yoon for allegedly colluding with his wife to receive 58 opinion polls valued at approximately 270 million won (US$202,000) for free from Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed power broker, between April 2021 and March 2022.
The lower court found Yoon guilty on 14 counts, determining that these incidents constituted illegal political donations. However, it did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that the other 44 incidents involved the couple's consent.
The special counsel team has been seeking a four-year prison sentence for Yoon. Meanwhile, his wife, Kim Keon Hee, was acquitted of the same charges in both her initial and appellate trials and is currently awaiting a final ruling from the Supreme Court.
Yoon is also facing multiple criminal trials following his unsuccessful attempt to declare martial law in 2024 and his subsequent removal from office.