According to Seoul Shinmun and Financial News, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 7 (presiding judge Koo Hoe-geun) acquitted Mayor Oh at 2 p.m. on the 23rd. The case concerned allegations that backer Kim Han-jeong covered the cost of polls conducted by political broker Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the 2021 by-election. Former Seoul deputy mayor Kang Chul-won and Kim were also acquitted.

Financial News reported that the first-instance court had fined Oh 10 million won and ordered 21 million won forfeited. It found that Oh had commissioned 5 of 10 polls and treated 21 million won of the 33 million won Kim paid as covered costs. The appeals court did not accept either finding.

Why the court did not believe Myung

Seoul Shinmun reported that the court first noted that Myung's statements were the only direct evidence on the core of the charges. If key parts of testimony conflict with objective facts, it said, credibility as a whole weakens, and using only part of it for conviction requires sufficient supporting evidence. That is where it parted from the first-instance court, which trusted the parts consistent with objective circumstances.

The court found it hard to separate what Myung personally experienced from guesses and exaggeration, and said he tended to explain unfavorable matters only peripherally. It also cited that he did not testify about Oh during the investigation, but began to do so in earnest after Oh said in December 2024 he would file a complaint. It noted that the first-instance court had already treated parts of his account as exaggerated.

Financial News reported that a recording of a call between Myung and Kim, submitted on appeal, contains remarks to the effect that he did not know Oh. The court found the scope and timing of the polls unclear and said Kim's five transfers did not match the ten polls. It also raised the possibility that Myung, who had conducted polls and shared them with political figures before meeting Oh, was seeking to show off his own influence.

The court did acknowledge that Kim paid money to Myung's side and that Oh's side met Myung, and said suspicion of guilt was not entirely absent. Even so, it concluded that criminal trials require proof beyond reasonable doubt, which was not reached. Financial News added that the same panel on the 7th also overturned a two-year prison term and acquitted former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the case over free receipt of Myung's polls.

Parties split, dispute over appeal

According to Hankyung and others, Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok called the ruling hard to accept in law and common sense and said the party would await the Supreme Court. Floor leader Han Byung-do argued the special counsel should appeal immediately to correct a legal error. News1 reported that the Democrats called the appeals panel an acquittal vending machine.

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk called the outcome justice served and urged the special counsel, which he said indicted without grounds, to give up an appeal; chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon called it a targeted probe built on a broker's testimony and demanded an apology. Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon said correcting the first ruling was a relief, while Reform Party lawmaker Lee Jun-seok called the case a political offensive meant to borrow the Democrats' blade. We found no specific statement from Mayor Oh in the reports we checked, and whether the special counsel will appeal has not been confirmed.

A third view: apart from political winners and losers, the ruling can be read as showing the distance between suspicion and proof. The court said suspicion of guilt was not absent yet chose acquittal once the sole direct evidence wavered, which some see as applying the strict standard of proof in criminal trials. The Democrats, by contrast, object that no one is punished although a backer passed on 33 million won, and fear a precedent in which politicians handle campaign costs through backers and claim ignorance. Both views look to how the Supreme Court will re-evaluate the law and evidence.