Seoul, Dec 3 (IANS) A special counsel team on Wednesday demanded a 15-year prison term for former first lady Kim Keon Hee on charges of corruption and bribery.
Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team made the request during the final hearing of Kim’s trial at the Seoul Central District Court, after indicting her in August on charges of violating the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol is accused of conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company’s stock price and make 810 million won (US$552,670) in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.
For that charge, the special counsel team requested 11 years in prison, a fine of 2 billion won and a forfeit of some 811 million won.
Kim is also accused of receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won together with her husband from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the presidential election in 2022 in exchange for securing the nomination of former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun for a parliamentary by-election later that year.
Additionally, she is suspected of receiving luxury gifts worth 80 million won from the Unification Church through a shaman in exchange for business favours in 2022.
The special counsel team demanded a four-year prison term, as well as a forfeit of 137 million won, for the bribery charge. The court said the sentencing hearing will be held on January 28. Kim has been held in custody since August 12. Her husband is also jailed and being tried on insurrection charges over his failed attempt to impose martial law last December.
–IANS
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