April 28, 2025
SEOUL – Former President Moon Jae-in’s indictment on bribery charges, involving questions over his former son-in-law’s salary, has raised the prospect of Moon standing trial alongside disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul.
The Jeonju District Prosecutor’s Office, which had investigated Moon since 2021, filed the indictment with the court on Thursday, explaining that because the bribery case centers around the former presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae, jurisdiction belonged to the Seoul Central District Court.
Having accepted jurisdiction, the Seoul Central District Court will simultaneously hold criminal trials for two former South Korean presidents, who held office successively, as Yoon was indicted for insurrection in late January.
The detailed schedule of Moon’s case has yet to be announced, but it is possible that the two former presidents will appear in court on the same day as the court decided Tuesday to hold three hearings every two weeks in Yoon’s case until the end of this year.
These will be the first simultaneous criminal trials of two former presidents in 29 years. In 1996, former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo appeared in court on charges of insurrection, bribery and corruption.
Trials for former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak were also held during overlapping periods in 2018. But Park, whose trial on charges of abuse of power and corruption began first, stopped attending the hearings and was therefore never physically in court at the same time as Lee.
Lee was indicted in 2018 on 16 charges, including abuse of power, tax evasion, election law violation and leaking of government secrets.
Former President Moon can still request a transfer of his case to a different court.
Article 15 of South Korea’s Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that a prosecutor or defendant may apply for a higher court to take their case if they consider it impossible to receive an impartial trial due to “the nature of the offense, the popular sentiment of the district, the circumstances of the proceedings or any other circumstances.”
Moon’s lawyers reportedly announced that nothing has been decided yet regarding a potential transfer.
Moon is accused of allowing his former son-in-law, identified by his surname Seo, to receive preferential treatment in securing a job with an airline. According to the prosecution, almost 220 million won ($154,000) in salary and expenses for relocating to Thailand were paid to the son-in-law between July 2018 and April 2020, which prosecutors argue constituted a de facto bribe to the former president.
The prosecution claims that Lee Sang-jik, a former two-term lawmaker from the then-ruling Democratic Party and founder of the budget airline Eastar Jet, was the source of the alleged bribe. Lee allegedly appointed Seo as executive director of Thai Eastar Jet despite his lack of airline industry experience, and paid him a monthly salary of 8 million won — almost twice the salary of the airline’s CEO — despite Eastar Jet’s financial struggles.
Moon’s legal representatives have denied all allegations, insisting that the prosecution abused its power by indicting a former president without giving him the opportunity to respond and defend himself against the claims.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea, including Rep. Youn Kun-young and Rep. Jung Tae-ho, argued that the prosecution is trying to divert public attention from Yoon’s criminal trial for political reasons and is attempting to defame Moon by portraying him as a former leader accused of crimes as serious as the allegations against Yoon.
Moon is the sixth former president to face criminal trial as a defendant.
