Seoul: Former first lady Kim Keon Hee has formally appealed a court decision that sentenced her to 20 months in prison for receiving luxury gifts from the Unification Church. This appeal comes in the wake of a ruling from the Seoul Central District Court last Wednesday, which also marked a historic moment as Kim and her husband, ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, became the first former presidential couple in South Korea to be imprisoned with criminal convictions.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the court also mandated that Kim forfeit 12.8 million won (US$8,770), while acquitting her of two additional charges related to stock price manipulation and violations of the Political Funds Act. The sentence imposed was considerably shorter than the 15-year prison term that was sought by special counsel Min Joong-ki's team. The team filed an appeal last Friday, citing "serious" misunderstandings of the facts in the court's judgment.
The court's decision found Kim guilty of accepting luxury items, including a Chanel bag and a Graff diamond necklace, from the Unification Church, which was allegedly seeking business favors in 2022. However, the other charges against her were not upheld by the court.
Kim faced accusations of conspiring to manipulate the stock price of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealership in South Korea, resulting in 810 million won in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012. Additionally, she was charged with violating the Political Funds Act by receiving free opinion polls with her husband from a self-described power broker before the 2022 presidential election.
The court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove Kim acted as an accomplice in the stock price manipulation scheme and found her not guilty of the political funds violation, noting that the opinion polls were not exclusively provided to the couple.
Meanwhile, former President Yoon is currently standing trial on charges related to his brief imposition of martial law in 2024. He has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the failed martial law attempt.