Seoul: A special counsel team has approached the Supreme Court to delay its final ruling on former first lady Kim Keon Hee's involvement in receiving free opinion polls, allegedly in collusion with her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol. This request came just a day after Yoon was convicted of related charges, as confirmed by legal sources on Tuesday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, special counsel Min Joong-ki's team filed the request to postpone the Supreme Court's ruling, initially set for Thursday. The delay is sought to allow the submission of additional opinions incorporating the recent findings from Yoon's trial. The couple faced charges separately for allegedly receiving 58 opinion polls valued at approximately 570 million won (US$180,754) from Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed power broker, in exchange for supporting former Rep. Kim Young-sun's nomination for the conservative People Power Party in a parliamentary by-election in June 2022.

In April, an appellate court acquitted Kim of these charges, but on Monday, a Seoul district court convicted Yoon of accepting 14 free opinion polls between April 2021 and March 2022, sentencing him to two years in prison. Meanwhile, Myung received an 18-month prison term. The special counsel has since appealed the appellate court's decision to acquit Kim.