Park Chul-min, known as an activist of the violent organization “International Mafia”, was also..

Park Chul-min, known as an activist of the violent organization “International Mafia”, was also sentenced to prison in the appeal for publishing false facts, such as delivering money to Lee Jae-myung, former chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

On December 14, the Suwon High Court Criminal Division 3-2 (Kim Dong-kyu, Kim Jong-ki and Won Ik-seon) rejected Park’s appeal during an appeals hearing. Park had been charged with violating the Public Elections Act and upheld a prison sentence of one year and six months.

Park was tried on charges of spreading false information. He claimed that he had ties to the International Mafia gang in Seongnam City and that he had received 2 billion won in bribes from the head of Comatrade, a Seongnam-based company. He wanted to betray Lee Jae-myung, the former Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 20th presidential election.

Park raised such suspicions in 2021, ahead of the presidential election. Attorney Jang Young-ha, who served as Park’s legal representative, passed on Park’s claim to Kim Yong-pan, then a member of the People’s Power party, that “Lee received about 2 billion won in exchange for giving preferential business treatment to a close associate of the International Mafia, a violent organization, when he was mayor of Seongnam.”

Based on the allegations, former MP Kim raised suspicions about Lee’s involvement with the international mafia in November of the same year, releasing photos of bundles of money and statements from Park during the parliamentary inspection of the Gyeonggi provincial government by the Public Administration and Security Commission of the National Assembly.

However, it later emerged that the photo was a “fake photo” that Park had posted on social media in the past to promote his car rental business and his private lending business.

The Democratic Party of Korea has filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for violating the Open Elections Act. According to the party, Park and lawyer Jang spread false information to prevent former representative Lee from winning the election.

In October last year, the court of first instance sentenced Park to one and a half years in prison.

The appeals court also upheld the original sentence, finding that “the original sentence did not contain misleading facts or misrepresent legal principles, and the sentence did not exceed reasonable limits.”