Oh camp slams special prosecutor's Supreme Court appeal as 'repackaging an empty box'

The camp of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon fired back at the special prosecution team led by Min Joong-ki, which has appealed to the Supreme Court against an appellate court's not-guilty ruling in a political funds law violation case, calling the move "a foreseeable appeal" and saying that "repeating the same arguments like a broken record does not conjure up evidence that never existed."

Lee Jong-hyun, a special adviser on public communication for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, issued a statement Friday saying "the special prosecutor's logic has grown increasingly thin from the second trial all the way to the Supreme Court appeal." Lee said the prosecution's case collapsed the moment a recorded phone call between Kim Han-jeong and Myung Tae-kyun captured Myung saying of Mayor Oh, "I don't know that person."

On the special prosecutor's grounds for appeal, Lee said the prosecution "has failed to break free from the logic it has repeated throughout the first and second trials." Lee added that the missed call on Jan. 22, a message from a campaign associate, and a 10 million won ($7,490) transfer "are nothing more than claims the appellate court already rejected after examining them one by one. An empty box is still an empty box no matter how many times you rewrap it."

Lee particularly criticized the special prosecutor's move to cite a date notation error in the appellate court's written ruling as grounds for appeal, calling it "nitpicking with a magnifying glass." The special prosecution has been emphasizing that Oh and Myung first met on Dec. 9, 2020, and maintained a relationship for a considerable period thereafter.

Lee rebuffed that characterization, saying the meeting "was an occasion where former lawmaker Kim Young-sun brought Myung along — a fact Oh's side has stated from the outset." Lee added that for nearly a month after that meeting, Oh did not even have Myung's contact information, and that correcting the date would have no bearing on the conclusion of the not-guilty ruling.

Lee then reaffirmed the specific grounds the appellate court cited for its not-guilty verdict, pointing to three factors: the polling work had begun before Myung allegedly received the request call; a passenger who would have been in the car and overheard the call testified to having no memory of hearing Oh's voice; and most of the polling results were passed on to the party leadership at the time, not to Oh. "Changing one date does not make the overwhelming grounds for acquittal disappear," Lee said.

"The harder the special prosecutor works to find flaws, the more it only reveals that the core evidence — that Oh actually commissioned the poll — has never been produced," Lee said. Lee added that Oh's side would wait calmly for the Supreme Court's ruling without being swayed by the appeal, and that Oh would continue to focus steadily on city governance.