The Supreme Court issued an additional arrest warrant for former first lady Kim Keon-hee, keeping her in custody as her trial continues. With the new warrant issued in a separate case just four days before her existing detention period was set to expire, Kim could remain in detention for up to eight more months.
The Supreme Court's Second Division, with Justice Oh Kyung-mi presiding, issued the additional warrant on the 27th after holding a hearing in the court's No. 1 courtroom on charges of taking bribes for brokering favors under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. The court said there was "a risk that she would destroy evidence or flee."
Kim was indicted and detained in September last year over what are known as the "three major scandals" — stock price manipulation at Deutsch Motors, opinion polling linked to Myung Tae-kyun, and receiving money and goods from the Unification Church. Her detention in that case was due to expire on the 31st, but the new warrant in the separate influence-peddling case keeps her behind bars.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team asked the Supreme Court on the 15th of this month to issue an additional arrest warrant for Kim on its own authority. The request came after the three-scandal case was referred to the full Supreme Court bench, making a ruling before the existing detention period expired unlikely.
Kim took part in the hearing by video link from the Seoul Southern Detention Center, where she is being held, while the special counsel team and her lawyers appeared in court in person. Her side requested that she be tried without detention, citing deteriorating health. Her defense team said her condition had worsened to the point that "medical staff at the detention center asked her how she could even stand up in that state," adding that she had been taking psychiatric medication for a long period after years of severe mental distress caused by the spread of false claims, including the "Julie" allegations, and political attacks. Kim also expressed a wish to receive treatment outside the detention center, according to officials.
Kim denied the influence-peddling charges as well. "Former President Yoon Suk-yeol is such a clean and principled person — why would he leave personnel decisions to me?" she said, arguing that it would be impossible for her to take money and lobby for appointments. Her lawyers stressed that there was no risk of flight or destruction of evidence, and that issuing a warrant in a separate case because the detention period in the existing case was expiring amounted to improper detention on unrelated grounds.
The special counsel team countered that Kim posed a flight risk because she had received a prison term in the appeals trial of the influence-peddling case, and that there was a possibility of evidence destruction because additional examination of evidence would be needed if the Supreme Court sent the case back for retrial. Deputy special counsel Kim Han-soo said the grounds for detention were "sufficiently established" and that the separate-case argument was difficult to accept.
Under the Criminal Procedure Act, a defendant's detention period is two months, extendable twice for a maximum of six months. If there are unavoidable grounds requiring additional review at the appellate stage, however, it can be extended once more for up to eight months in total.
Kim was sentenced to four years in prison in April this year in the appeals trial of the three-scandal case. She was acquitted in both the first and second trials of charges of violating the Political Funds Act in connection with the Myung Tae-kyun polling. The Supreme Court had initially planned to rule on July 16, but referred the case to the full bench after Yoon, who was indicted over the same allegations, was convicted in his first trial.
In the influence-peddling case in which the latest warrant was issued, Kim was indicted on charges including receiving jewelry worth 103.8 million won ($72,000) from Seohee Construction Chairman Lee Bong-kwan in exchange for lobbying on behalf of his son-in-law, Park Sung-keun, the former chief of staff to the prime minister. The first trial handed down a seven-year prison term and the appeals court five years.