(KPL/Yonhap) Judges nationwide will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the controversy surrounding presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung's election law violation case, a judges' association said Friday.

The meeting was requested "due to the need to discuss and organize our position on suspicions about the courts' political neutrality and the issue of damage to confidence in the judiciary," the association said.

Controversy has arisen after the Supreme Court made an unusually quick decision last week to send Lee's case back to the Seoul High Court for a retrial, citing errors in its acquittal of the presidential front-runner of charges of making false statements during the previous presidential race in 2021.

Lee's liberal Democratic Party denounced the decision as interference in the upcoming June 3 presidential election, as a guilty verdict could bar him from running in the race.

The judges' association said it requested the meeting as the condition for consent from at least one-fifth of its members was met.

The association is made up of delegates of judges from all levels of courts nationwide.

KPL