Special Counsel Appeals 5-Year Sentence for Kim Keon-hee

The special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against an appellate ruling that sentenced former first lady Kim Keon-hee to five years in prison on charges of accepting cash and goods in exchange for personnel favors and other requests.

The team said on the 28th that it filed the appeal with the appellate bench, Criminal Division 15-3 of the Seoul High Court (High Court Judges Sung Eon-ju, Won Ik-sun and Lee Hee-jun), citing errors in fact-finding and misapplication of law.

The appellate court on the 22nd of this month sentenced Kim to five years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of 24.4 million won. The term was two years shorter than the seven years handed down by the trial court. The appellate court found that some of the money and goods had not been proven to be compensation for favors, and acquitted her on part of the charges.

Specifically, on the charge of receiving a Vacheron Constantin wristwatch worth 39.9 million won from a robot dog businessman surnamed Seo along with a request for business support, the court found insufficient proof that the watch was compensation for the request and that Kim was aware of this. It also acquitted her over a replica of the Sehando painting received from Lee Bae-yong, former chair of the National Education Commission, saying it was difficult to view the item as compensation for a request.

The court upheld the trial court's guilty findings on the remaining charges, including the charge of receiving a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace from Chairman Lee Bong-kwan along with a request for a personnel favor for his eldest son-in-law.

On the day of the appellate ruling, the special counsel team said it was left with regret over "whether ordinary citizens can accept a finding that there can be no crime at all when a first lady received a luxury watch worth tens of millions of won from a businessman with pending issues." Accordingly, the application of law to the charges the appellate court dismissed is expected to be a key issue at the Supreme Court.

Kim's side also filed an appeal on the 23rd of this month, the day after the ruling. With both the special counsel and Kim's side appealing, the so-called "selling of public offices" case will now receive a final ruling from the Supreme Court.

Other major criminal cases involving Kim are also under review at the Supreme Court. The "three suspicions" case, including alleged stock price manipulation involving Deutsch Motors, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court's full bench on the 29th of this month.