A. misunderstanding of facts or misapprehension of legal principles, the Defendant: (a) informed that E was in contact with a person without speed and confirmed that E was not in contact with a person without speed, or that E was in contact with a person with a person without speed; (b) and then published an article in the facts charged in this case (hereinafter “the article in this case”); (c) the Defendant did not know that the article in this case was false; and (d) even though the Defendant’s act was for the purpose of verifying the candidate for a National Assembly member, which was for the public interest as a verification of the candidate for a National Assembly member, and was not for the purpose of making him elected, the lower court erred by misapprehending the facts or by misapprehending the legal principles, thereby adversely affecting the conclusion of the judgment.

B. In light of the fact that the sentencing unfair Defendant’s act can be seen as an act for the public interest of verifying candidates for public office, the lower court’s punishment (an amount of KRW 5 million) is too unreasonable.

2. Determination

A. Judgment on the misunderstanding of facts or misapprehension of the legal principles 1) The crime of publishing false facts under Article 250(2) of the Public Official Election Act is established when a candidate, his spouse or lineal ascendant or descendant, or a sibling has published or made another person publish or made another person publish false facts with the intention to not be elected.

In applying the crime of publishing false facts under Article 250(2) of the Public Official Election Act, where “any fact” is published by lending the form of delivering written questions or other expressions of another person, or the form of raising suspicions, not whether such written questions or suspicions were false, but whether “any fact,” which is the content of such written questions or suspicions, is false (see Supreme Court Decision 2015Do14375, Dec. 27, 2016, etc.). The crime of publishing false facts under Article 250(2) of the Public Official Election Act is a crime of publishing false facts.