Prosecutors sought a two-year sentence for main opposition Democratic Party(DP) leader Lee Jae-myung in an appeals trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act.

At a final hearing at the Seoul High Court on Wednesday, the prosecution said if the standard applied to the Act were different depending on the identity of the accused or a surrounding political situation, its objective to realize democracy would be disregarded.

Lee was indicted over statements he made during a media interview as the main opposition's presidential candidate in December 2021, denying he had known the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive at the Seongnam Development Corporation(SDC), though they allegedly had close ties.

Lee allegedly gave a false statement during a parliamentary audit as Gyeonggi governor, claiming the land ministry under the former Park Geun-hye government had forced him to provide preferential treatment to a third party when rezoning the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute.

Lee was convicted last November in the first trial, where he was handed a one-year prison term, suspended for two years.
 
If the sentence is confirmed by the Supreme Court, Lee would lose his parliamentary seat and be banned from running in an election for ten years.