The spouse of South Korea’s ousted former president has been sentenced to twenty months in jail for accepting bribes from the controversial Unification Church.
Nonetheless, the courtroom cleared 52-year-old Kim Keon Hee on expenses of inventory worth manipulation and receiving free opinion polls from a political dealer earlier than the 2022 presidential election, which was received by her husband Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon has already been sentenced to 5 years’ in jail for abusing energy and obstructing justice in relation to his failed martial regulation bid in 2024.
This marks the primary time in South Korea’s historical past {that a} former presidential couple are convicted on the similar time.
On Wednesday, a choose on the Seoul Central District Court docket dominated that Kim had “misused her place as a method of pursuing private achieve”.
“The upper [one’s] place, the extra consciously one should guard towards such conduct… The defendant didn’t reject solicitations and was preoccupied with self-adornment,” the choose stated.
A particular counsel group appointed to the case stated Kim acquired 80m received of items, which embody a Graff diamond necklace and several other Chanel purses, from the Unification Chruch between April and July 2022, in alternate for enterprise and political favours.
The group had sought a 15-year jail time period and a fantastic of two billion received for all three expenses heard right this moment – for which Kim was convicted of 1 – however the choose famous that Kim was not the one who demanded or solicited the bribes, and that she had “no vital legal document”.
She was nevertheless ordered to pay again 12.85 million received ($9,000; £6,500) in money and the courtroom additionally ordered the confiscation of the diamond necklace.
Kim has additionally been charged over her alleged involvement in a scheme to recruit Unification Church followers to the conservative Individuals Energy Celebration that her husband was a part of, and accepting items in alternate for presidency job appointments. The courtroom has but to listen to these instances.
Extra reporting by Leehyun Choi in Seoul
