Lee Jae-myung, Noh Woong-rae's acquittal: "Sacrifice by political prosecutors, belated apology"

President Lee Jae-myung said on the 21st that former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Noh Woong-rae was found not guilty in the first and second trials on charges of bribery and receiving illegal political funds, saying, "I will make sure to create a country where innocent citizens will never again be sacrificed by the abuse of state power."

On this day, President Lee wrote on

The 'deprivation of political life' mentioned by President Lee appears to refer to the fact that former lawmaker Roh was cut off from nominations during the 2024 general election when he was being tried on suspicions of bribery and other charges. At the time, President Lee was the leader of the Democratic Party.

President Lee said, "Former Rep. Roh was a college senior I personally respected and one of the few political assistants, and for the Democratic Party, he was the candidate with the highest chance of being elected in the Mapo-gap area of ​​Seoul."

He continued, "Senior Roh escaped arrest, but fell prey to persistent political prosecutors and was indicted as a corruption offender. The general election held after the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, backed by political prosecutors, came to power, was a critical election where the fate of the country and the people depended, and we had to win even at the risk of death, so I, who was leading the Democratic Party, had no choice but to exclude former lawmaker Roh from nomination with tears in my eyes."

He also wrote, “After exclusion from nominations, there was no choice but to put in a new candidate in the Mapo Gap election, and Mr. Roh even campaigned to help in the election in which he was deprived of his political life, but he ended up losing.”

At the time, the Democratic Party nominated former spokesperson Lee Ji-eun for the Mapo-gap constituency.

President Lee said, "As the leader of the party, I had no choice but to take advantage of the evil practices of the political prosecutors and live in the village for the sake of the general election. In the midst of pain and regret, I would like to congratulate and belatedly apologize to senior Roh, who was proven innocent and escaped the danger of English."

Lastly, he wrote, "Senior Noh Woong-rae, I'm sorry. I respect you. I love you."