Special counsel challenges former South Korean first lady's sentence ruling

A special counsel team announced on Monday that it has filed an appeal with the South Korean Supreme Court after an appellate court ruling sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to four years in prison on corruption-related charges.

The Seoul High Court on Tuesday increased Kim’s sentence from an earlier 20-month term to four years in prison, finding her partially guilty in a stock price manipulation scheme and also guilty of accepting luxury gifts from the Unification Church, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team had originally sought a 15-year prison sentence for Kim, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

She was indicted on charges including violations of the Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act, and a law concerning bribery for mediation.

The special counsel’s appeal appears to challenge parts of the appellate ruling, particularly the acquittal related to alleged violations of the political funds law. This charge concerned claims that Kim received free opinion polling results from a self-described power broker.

The appellate court had revised a lower court’s earlier decision, overturning an acquittal on her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme. It found her guilty of accepting luxury gifts from a former Unification Church official who was reportedly seeking favors in 2022.

Those gifts included two Chanel bags, a Graff diamond necklace, and ginseng extract tea. The court also imposed a fine of 50 million won (approximately US$33,900) and ordered the confiscation of the necklace along with the forfeiture of around 20 million won.

However, the court upheld her acquittal regarding the opinion poll allegations, ruling that the broker had distributed the results to individuals beyond Kim and her husband.

Kim, who has been detained since August in connection with the corruption case, has also filed her own appeal against the ruling.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev