By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

A Seoul court on Thursday handed down jail terms to two key campaigners of the opposition Grand National Party over the illegal political funds they collected from businesses during the 2002 presidential campaign.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Rep. Kim Young-iel to three and a half years in jail and 1.15 billion won in fines. Seo Jeong-woo, an aide to former GNP presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang, received a four-year prison term and a fine of 1.5 billion won. The court also seized 300 million won in checks from Seo.
``It appears certain that Kim and Seo collected illegal political funds with other accomplices, such as Rep. Choi Don-woong and then finance director Lee Jae-hyun, despite their obligations to conduct a fair election,’’ the court said in its ruling.

``They disappointed a lot of people by being involving in illegal fundraising.’’

Kim and Seo played key roles when the party took 30 billion won from Samsung, 15 billion won from LG, 10 billion won from Hyundai Motor, 10 billion won from SK, 1 billion won from Korean Air, and 1.5 billion won from Daewoo Engineering & Construction in the lead-up to the presidential election.

Seo, 60, former district court and high court judge, was indicted last December for his role in the collection of illegal funds. He provided legal counseling to Lee Hoi-chang, a retired chief judge of the Supreme Court, and was one of Lee’s chief policy coordinators during the presidential race.

Rep. Kim served as secretary general of the GNP, managing the ins and outs of the political funds.

The court said it will not seize the illegal funds the GNP took in 2002 from individuals, based on a previous ruling by the Supreme Court in a similar case.

The Justice Ministry said on Thursday that it has decided to seize real estate worth about 20 billion won owned by the GNP in order to return the party’s illegal funds to the state. Last month, the prosecution said it will launch a probe into the party’s local chapters in order to retrieve illegal funds funneled into local chapters.

GNP chapters took about 58 billion won in illegal funds from party headquarters for campaign purposes during the presidential election.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr