▲ In this file photo, former first lady Kim Keon Hee attends her corruption trial at the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Dec. 3, 2025. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

ex-first lady-trial

Court allows live broadcast of ruling on ex-first lady's corruption case

SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Yonhap) -- A court on Tuesday allowed live broadcasts of this week's ruling on the corruption and bribery case of former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

The Seoul Central District Court said it accepted broadcasters' request to air the verdict, which will be delivered at a hearing scheduled for 2:10 p.m. Wednesday.

The court typically allows live broadcasts in consideration of the public interest.

Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team has requested a 15-year prison term for Kim on charges of violating the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act and a law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation.

The wife of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol is accused of conspiring with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea, as well as a close associate, to manipulate the company's stock price and make 810 million won (US$559,000) in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.

Kim is also suspected of receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won, together with her husband, from a self-proclaimed power broker ahead of the 2022 presidential election.

The opinion polls were allegedly conducted in exchange for the nomination of former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun for a parliamentary by-election later that year.

Additionally, the former first lady is accused of conspiring with a shaman to receive luxury gifts worth 80 million won from a Unification Church official in 2022, along with requests for business favors.

Kim has been held in custody over the charges since Aug. 12.

Her husband is also jailed and standing trial on insurrection and other charges over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.

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