Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team Appeals Hak Ja Han Moon’s First-Instance Ruling, Saying “Two-Year Sentence Was Excessively Lenient”

[Financial News] The Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team, led by Special Counsel Min Joung-kie, has appealed the first-instance ruling sentencing Hak Ja Han Moon, leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, to two years in prison for allegedly providing expensive gifts and illegal political funds to Kim Keon Hee during the 2022 presidential election campaign.
The special prosecutor’s team argued that the sentence imposed on Hak Ja Han Moon was excessively lenient in light of her culpability and that the court had misapplied the law in dismissing some of the charges.
The team announced to the media on the 4th that it had appealed the first-instance ruling in the case involving Hak Ja Han Moon and others, including charges of embezzlement under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. It cited improper sentencing and a legal error concerning the scope of the investigation.
On the 31st of last month, the first-instance court sentenced Hak Ja Han Moon to two years in prison. Jung Won-joo, who was tried alongside her, received two separate sentences of eight months in prison, each suspended for two years, for violating the Political Funds Act and the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. Yoon Young-ho, former head of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification’s World Headquarters, was sentenced to six months in prison, while Yoon Young-ho’s wife, former Family Federation for World Peace and Unification finance director Lee Shin-hye, received six months in prison, suspended for one year.
The first-instance court found Hak Ja Han Moon, Jung Won-joo, and Yoon Young-ho guilty of the main charges, including providing expensive gifts to Kim Keon Hee and political funds to Kweon Seong-dong, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, and the People Power Party’s provincial and metropolitan organizations.
The special prosecutor’s team argued, “This case involves a religious organization colluding with political power to manipulate state affairs and violate multiple constitutional values, including the separation of religion and state and representative democracy.” It added that, given the seriousness of the case, the nature of the offenses, and the social harm caused, the first-instance sentences did not reflect the defendants’ culpability.
The team also challenged the sentencing factors that had been considered favorable to Hak Ja Han Moon. It criticized the first-instance court for treating her efforts for world peace as a favorable circumstance, calling it “a vague and abstract reason.” It also argued that the court wrongly deemed the expansion of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification’s influence and political power—a motive recognized for the offenses—to be unrelated to Hak Ja Han Moon’s personal interests, even though it was directly connected to them.
The team particularly emphasized that Hak Ja Han Moon’s two-year sentence was effectively the same as that imposed on Yoon Young-ho, who carried out the offenses. Yoon Young-ho had already received a confirmed sentence of one year and six months and was sentenced to an additional six months in this case. The team argued that Hak Ja Han Moon’s sentence was difficult to accept, especially because Yoon Young-ho had actively cooperated with the investigation and trial involving the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and was therefore subject to mandatory mitigation under the Special Prosecutor Act.
The team also decided to ask the appellate court to review the dismissal of some charges on the grounds that they fell outside the special prosecutor’s investigative mandate.
The team argued that the charges against Hak Ja Han Moon and Jung Won-joo of instructing others to destroy evidence related to Hak Ja Han Moon’s gambling offenses constituted “related criminal acts” under the Special Prosecutor Act, because the alleged conduct occurred after investigative information was leaked based on their collusive relationship with Kweon Seong-dong.
Regarding the alleged embezzlement of funds from an institution affiliated with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the special prosecutor also stressed that it had lawfully begun the investigation to determine whether the embezzled funds might have been provided additionally to people on the side of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, including Kim Keon Hee and Kweon Seong-dong.
The team’s position was that, even if the alleged connection could not ultimately be established, it was improper to dismiss the charges as though the investigation had been unlawfully initiated from the outset.
The team also filed an immediate appeal on the 4th against the court’s decision to extend Hak Ja Han Moon’s suspension of detention once again.
Hak Ja Han Moon was temporarily released on March 27 under a suspension of detention and has repeatedly obtained extensions. This was the fifth extension, and the suspension will remain in effect until 6 p.m. on the 30th.
 
[email protected] Choi Eun-sol Reporter