Jang Young-ha, the lawyer who accused President Lee Jae-myung of having connections with organized crime during the 2022 presidential election, has filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to annul his conviction for violating election law. Jang claimed that Lee received 2 billion won from the international mafia in exchange for business favors while he was mayor of Seongnam. However, the Supreme Court recently confirmed lower court rulings that deemed Jang's allegations false, leading to a sentence of one year in prison with a two-year probation period.

In his recently filed petition, Jang is contesting the second and third trial rulings, arguing that if his application for a suspension of the ruling is accepted, the conviction will lose its validity until the main hearing of his trial review is concluded. Initially, the prosecution decided not to charge Jang, believing there was no intent in his allegations. However, following a petition from the Democratic Party of Korea, the decision was overturned, resulting in a formal trial, where Jang was ultimately convicted after an appeal process.

Jang has criticized the procedural fairness of the trial, claiming that the court improperly included allegations that were not present in the original complaint during the retrial process after the Democratic Party's appeal. He argues that this violates the principle of prosecutorial monopoly, which states that only prosecutors can initiate public criminal prosecutions. According to Jang, using evidence from a different criminal allegation without formal charges should not have been permissible in court, alleging that this undermines legal principles.