High court acquits ex-Ulsan mayor, lawmaker in election meddling case

High Court Acquits Ex Ulsan Mayor, Lawmaker In Election Meddling Case

Former Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho, left, and opposition lawmaker Hwang Un-ha speak to reporters at the Seoul High Court in Seoul, Feb. 4. Yonhap

Former Ulsan Mayor Track Cheol-ho, left, and opposition lawmaker Hwang Un-ha communicate to reporters on the Seoul Excessive Courtroom in Seoul, Feb. 4. Yonhap

A courtroom of appeals on Tuesday acquitted former Ulsan Mayor Track Cheol-ho and opposition lawmaker Hwang Un-ha of election interference expenses associated to the southeastern metropolis’s mayoral election in 2018, overthrowing a three-year jail sentence given by a district courtroom to every of them.

The Seoul Excessive Courtroom made the ruling after the Seoul Central District Courtroom discovered Track and Hwang responsible in late 2023 of conspiring to engineer an investigation towards an election rival.

Track, a longtime good friend of then President Moon Jae-in, was indicted in January 2020 on expenses of conspiring with Hwang and a few presidential aides to win the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election.

Hwang, who served as Ulsan’s police chief at the moment, was indicted on suspicion of conducting a controversial investigation into the camp of Track’s election rival after which Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon on the request of Track and a few aides to Moon.

Track finally beat Kim within the election and served as Ulsan mayor from 2018-2022. Hwang later received a parliamentary seat within the 2020 normal elections on the then ruling Democratic Social gathering of Korea’s ticket. He received a second time period in final 12 months’s parliamentary elections and is now serving as ground chief of the minor Rebuilding Korea Social gathering.

The appellate courtroom additionally acquitted two former presidential officers of election meddling expenses. (Yonhap)

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