Ruling on former first lady's corruption charges pushed back to next week

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it has postponed the sentencing hearing of former first lady Kim Keon Hee's corruption trial to next week after a special counsel team requested more time to submit additional opinions following the conviction of Kim's husband on the same charges facing Kim.

The sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been pushed back to next Friday, the top court said, apparently granting special counsel Min Joong-ki's request made the previous day.

Min's team requested the postponement of the final ruling for Kim, the wife of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, citing the need for the case to consider Yoon's conviction earlier this week on charges covered by Kim's trial.

The couple was indicted separately on charges of receiving 58 opinion polls worth about 270 million won ($181,000) for free from a self-claimed power broker, Myung Tae-kyun, in exchange for their support for a former lawmaker in winning the nomination of the conservative People Power Party for a parliamentary by-election in June 2022.

An appellate court had cleared Yoon's wife of the charges in April, but a Seoul district court on Monday convicted Yoon of receiving 14 opinion polls for free, sentencing him to two years in prison.

In Kim's acquittal, the Seoul High Court had ruled the couple could not be seen as profiting off the opinion polls as Myung had provided them to other people as well.

The appellate court still sentenced Kim to four years in prison after finding her guilty on charges of involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme and accepting bribes from the Unification Church.

Yonhap