(Seoul) The man who stabbed former South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in January was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday, a court in Busan (southeast) told AFP.
The assailant, aged around 60, was “sentenced to 15 years in prison today,” Lee Jae-hee, a spokesman for the Busan District Court, told AFP.
Armed with a knife, he posed as a Lee Jae-myung supporter and stabbed him while he was surrounded by journalists at an event on January 2 in Busan.
Lee Jae-myung was injured in the jugular and underwent emergency surgery. He was hospitalized for about a week, but then recovered well.
Known in the media only as Kim, the attacker had been charged with attempted murder and violating election laws, the incident taking place three months before parliamentary elections on April 10.
Police said Kim had meticulously planned his attack, as he wanted to prevent Lee Jae-myung from “becoming president” of the country.
In the April elections, South Korea’s conservative party of current President Yoon Suk Yeol suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Democratic Party, then led by Lee Jae-myung.
The latter’s candidacy at the Democratic Party convention scheduled for August is highly anticipated.
Several prominent political figures have been attacked in public in South Korea.
In 2022, Lee Jae-myung’s predecessor as leader of the Democrats, Song Young-gil, was hit on the head with a blunt object.
In 2006, Park Geun-hye, who became president in 2013, was attacked with a knife during a rally.