(ATTN: CLARIFIES 4th para; ADDS opposition party's comments, other details in paras 5-8)
SUWON, South Korea, June 20 (Yonhap) -- A regional court on Saturday found a former vice governor of Gyeonggi Province guilty of perjury for falsely testifying to parliament that he was provided with alcohol and food during a prosecution interrogation.
The Suwon District Court sentenced Lee Hwa-young to four months in prison, convicting him of violating the law on testimony before the National Assembly, according to the court document. The case was tried before a seven-panel citizen jury.
Lee was indicted on perjury charges after he testified during a parliamentary hearing in 2024 that he and Kim Seong-tae, former chairman of underwear maker Ssangbangwool, were treated to alcohol and raw salmon during questioning by prosecutors over their involvement in an illegal remittance to North Korea in 2019.
Lee claimed that prosecutors pressured and enticed him and Kim to give false statements incriminating President Lee Jae Myung, then the main opposition party leader who had served as Gyeonggi governor when the unauthorized money transfer allegedly took place.
The court ruled that Lee Hwa-young's testimonies lacked consistency and credibility.
The court ruling draws attention as it blunts the ruling Democratic Party's (DP) push to dismiss the remittance case, which was built on the argument that the prosecution had coerced the former vice governor into implicating the president.
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