SEOUL, Aug 13 – South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon-hee has been arrested on charges of involvement in a stock manipulation scheme, election meddling and bribery, making her and her husband, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, the first former presidential couple to be detained simultaneously, Yonhap reported on Wednesday.
Before her arrest, a South Korean court issued a warrant to detain Kim, who has been kept in custody on insurrection and other charges, a special counsel team said Tuesday night, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant, requested by independent counsel Min Joong-ki, on charges of violating the capital market act, the political funds act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation, saying that the move aimed to prevent Kim from destroying evidence, Xinhua reported.
Kim was jailed in the Seoul Southern Detention Center in Seoul, where she had been awaiting the court’s decision after attending the court hearing on her detention.
It marked the first time in the country’s constitutional history that ex-presidential couple was simultaneously brought into custody, Xinhua said.
Yoon has been held at a separate detention center since July 10 on insurrection charges over his short-lived martial law imposition last December.
Kim was suspected of participating in a stock price manipulation, interfering with the nomination of candidates in the 2022 parliamentary by-elections, and receiving luxury gifts from the Unification Church in exchange for business favors.
Global Times-Xinhua
