SEOUL: South Korea’s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday he had been cleared by a court in an election law violations case, with his acquittal paving the way for a future presidential run. “I am grateful to the court for making a sound judgment based on truth and justice,” Lee said in front of cheering supporters outside the court, slamming the government for “wasting public resources” on trying to prosecute him.

The Seoul High Court overturned a previous ruling, saying that Lee, who leads the main opposition Democratic Party, was not guilty of making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act. Lee said it was “absurd that so much energy and national resources had to be spent to reach what should have been an obvious outcome.”

“If the prosecution and this administration had devoted the same effort they used to fabricate evidence and manipulate cases against Lee Jae-myung to preventing wildfires or improving people’s lives, how much better off we might be,” said Lee. South Korea is battling some of its worst ever wildfires in the southeast, which have killed at least 24 people. The verdict comes four months after the Seoul Central District Court handed Lee a one-year jail term, suspended for two years, finding him guilty, which Lee appealed immediately.

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Hundreds of his supporters outside the court were seen shouting and crying with joy when the verdict was announced, chanting his name. The case concerns statements Lee made on the campaign trail in 2022, when he narrowly lost the presidential election to suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached by lawmakers over his abortive December declaration of martial law. South Korea’s Constitutional Court is set to rule on whether to finally strip Yoon of office, which would trigger elections in 60 days — which Lee is currently frontrunner to win.

Lee was seen earlier entering the court shaking hands with more than 40 Democratic Party lawmakers, who appeared as a sign of support. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, which he has taken to wearing at recent public appearances, as his lawmakers complain of growing threats. In 2024, he was stabbed in the neck by a man who pushed through a crowd pretending to be his supporter, according to his party.

Lee, 60, still faces a slew of legal cases. In some of them, prosecutors have requested prison time. Any sentence above one year could disqualify Lee from running for the country’s highest office. The leader of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party Kwon Seong-dong said it was “deeply regrettable” that the first trial verdict was overturned. “The prosecution is expected to appeal, and I hope the Supreme Court will deliver a clear ruling on whether the statement in question was false, putting an end to the controversy,” said Kwon. The Prosecution Service said it would appeal. “We intend to take the matter to the Supreme Court — the final instance — to correct the appellate court’s legal error,” it said in a statement.

The court had “indiscriminately accepted the defendant’s claims” and interpreted them “in a way that entirely differs from how an average voter would have understood them”, it said. If the verdict is reinstated on appeal, South Korean law will require Lee to be stripped of his parliamentary seat and prohibited from running for public office for the next five years — which would include the 2027 presidential election. Additionally, his party will be required to return the 43.4 billion won ($31 million) it received from the state election watchdog to fund its presidential campaign in 2022. — AFP