Seoul, Aug 11 (IANS) South Korean Special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team said on Monday that they have asked for former first lady Kim Keon Hee to be placed at a detention centre different from the one where her husband and former President Yoon Suk Yeol is held in the event an arrest warrant is issued for her.
Min’s team requested a warrant for Kim last Thursday, a day after questioning her over her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme, meddling in candidate nominations for the 2022 parliamentary by-elections, and bribe taking in exchange for business favors for the Unification Church.
The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday to determine whether to issue the warrant on charges of violations of the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation.
“At the request of Seoul Detention Centre, we submitted an application to the court requesting a change in the place for her detention and confinement from Seoul Detention Centre to Seoul Southern Detention Centre,” the special counsel team said in a notice to the press.
Kim was initially scheduled to be taken to Seoul Detention Centre in Uiwang, just south of the capital, after attending Tuesday’s hearing to await the court’s decision.
The request to switch to Seoul Southern Detention Centre in southwestern Seoul is likely because her husband is currently in custody at Seoul Detention Centre over his failed attempt to impose martial law in December, Yonhap news agency reported.
Should Kim also be placed under arrest, it will be the first time in the country’s history that a former presidential couple is locked up simultaneously.
Earlier in the day, the insurrection trial of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol was held without his attendance for the fourth consecutive time.
The Seoul Central District Court held a scheduled trial hearing for the first time since July 24, following a two-week summer break for all courts, but Yoon did not appear.
The former president has been standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection and abusing his power through his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.
He has refused to attend the hearings since July 10, however, when he was incarcerated for the second time over the martial law plan, citing his deteriorating health.
His lawyers have said the former president is in particular pain since last Thursday, when investigators from special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team tried to physically remove him from his detention centre to question him over election meddling allegations involving him and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
–IANS
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