SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s Supreme Court said it will rule on Thursday in a criminal case that could determine whether the frontrunner for the June 3 snap election, former opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, can run for president.
The top court is deciding on an appeal by prosecutors after a lower court decision to clear Lee of charges of violating election law. He was initially found guilty and he appealed against that verdict.
If the Supreme Court upholds that ruling or sends it back to the lower court, Lee would likely be clear to run.
If he is handed a final prison sentence or a fine of 1 million won ($697) or more, he would be barred from running for office for at least five years.
The case would be handled “in accordance with the law,” Lee said when asked on Tuesday about the ruling date as he walked out of a court where he’s on trial in another case.
The election was called after Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by the Lee-led parliament and removed as president by the Constitutional Court over an attempt in December to impose martial law.
Lee was named the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate on Sunday after winning the primary, and has been leading opinion polls for weeks with a double-digit gap over contestants from Yoon’s conservative People Power Party.
The DP has not put forward an official contingency plan in the case that Lee is barred, and his exit from the race would throw it wide open.
The PPP, reeling from Yoon’s ouster, will name its candidate on May 3, and local media report that Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who is serving as acting president, may also throw his hat in the ring.
Lee also faces several other trials on matters ranging from bribery to charges mostly linked to a $1 billion property development scandal, but rulings on those cases are not expected to come before the election.
($1 = 1,433.7300 won)
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; editing by Ed Davies and Mark Heinrich)
