Kim Keon Hee faces a decision on whether her detention will be extended as the Supreme Court holds a warrant hearing today

[Financial News] A hearing to determine whether to keep Kim Keon Hee in detention, as she faces a final appeal over allegations of influence peddling, will be held at the Supreme Court on the 27th. The key issue is whether the Supreme Court, which reviews questions of law, would contravene the purpose of the Criminal Procedure Act’s limits on detention by issuing an additional detention warrant based on a separate case.
According to legal sources on the 27th, the Supreme Court of Korea’s Second Division, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the justice in charge of the case, will hold a detention-warrant hearing at 2:30 p.m. that day in Courtroom No. 1 of the Supreme Court. Justice Sotomayor will conduct the hearing herself and decide whether to issue the warrant. Kim will participate by video from Seoul Southern Detention Center, where she is being held, while the only people to appear in court in person will be her three lawyers and members of the Kim Keon Hee Special Prosecutor Team, including deputy special prosecutors and dispatched prosecutors, led by Special Prosecutor Min Joung-kie. A decision is expected as early as that evening, and by the following day at the latest.
The hearing is being held because Kim’s detention period expires on the 31st. She was indicted while in custody last September in cases involving the “three major allegations”: stock-price manipulation involving Deutsche Motors, opinion polls involving Myeong Tae-gyun, and the receipt of money and valuables from the Unification Church. The second-trial ruling in the three cases was issued on April 28, but the Supreme Court referred the case to the full bench to review the allegations concerning Myeong Tae-gyun’s opinion polls, delaying the final-appeal ruling. With observers expecting a ruling to be unlikely before her detention expires, the special counsel team submitted an opinion on the 15th asking the panel hearing the final appeal in the influence-peddling case to issue an additional detention warrant ex officio. Kim’s side submitted an opposing opinion the following day.
The special counsel team says it is difficult to accept the argument that Kim poses no flight risk, given that she received a five-year prison sentence in the second trial on influence-peddling charges. It also said that because Kim’s side denies the charges in the indictment, the conclusion of fact-finding proceedings alone does not mean there is no risk of evidence destruction.
Kim’s side, by contrast, argued that the Supreme Court, as a court that reviews questions of law, would be circumventing the purpose of the Criminal Procedure Act’s limits on detention if it issued a warrant based on a separate case to extend the detention period. It said there was no risk of evidence destruction or flight because the fact-finding trials at both the first and second levels had concluded. Article 92 of the Criminal Procedure Act sets the detention period at two months and allows it to be extended up to twice at each level of court. At the appellate stage, it may be extended up to three times if further hearings are unavoidable. If a new warrant is issued on different charges, the detention period is calculated anew from the beginning.
The influence-peddling allegations concern a case of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes for receiving money and valuables in return for arranging favors. Kim is accused of receiving high-value gifts from businesspeople and public officials from March 2022 to February 2023 in exchange for providing business favors and helping with personnel appointments and nominations. The first trial found her guilty on all charges and sentenced her to seven years in prison, ordering her to pay 64.8 million won in additional forfeiture. The second trial acquitted her of the charges concerning receipt of a replica of the Sehando painting and a wristwatch, reducing her sentence to five years and the additional forfeiture to 24.4 million won.


[email protected] Kim Dong-kyu Reporter