South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee was arrested late Tuesday over a number of charges, including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said.
The arrest took place hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed the prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old.
The court admitted the order, referring to the risk of manipulating with evidence after prosecutors presented an opinion of 848 pages that made Kim’s alleged “illegal acts”.
With the arrest, South Korea now has a former president and first lady both behind pillars for the first time in the country’s history.
The charges against Kim include violations of the capital market and financial investment legislation as well as the Act on political funds.
The arrest caps a dramatic fall for the first couple after former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s fantastic martial arts declaration on December 3, which saw soldiers deployed to parliament, but was quickly voted down by opposition MPs.
Yoon, a former top prosecutor, was impeached and removed from office in April over the declaration of martial arts, causing the country to hold a Snap selection in June.
He has been arrested and in detention since July 10.
Last week Kim Timer Long reviewed the prosecutors who filed her arrest warrant the next day.
“I sincerely apologize for causing problems despite being a person irrelevant,” Kim said when she arrived at the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday.
Controvers have long surrounded Kim with lingering questions about her alleged role in stock manipulation.
Public criticism was resumed in 2022 when a leftist Pastor filmed herself and presented her with a Dior hand bag that she seemed to accept.
She is also accused of having interfered in the nomination process for MPs in Yoon’s Party, a violation of election legislation.
Yoon, as president, vetoed three special investigative bills adopted by the opposition -controlled parliament trying to investigate the allegations against Kim, with the last veto issued in late November.
A week later, Yoon Martial Law declared.
Mug shot
According to prison regulations, Kim will have to switch from his normal clothing to a Khaki prison uniform and get an insert number.
She also has to take a mug shot.
The first first lady is held in a 10-square-foot (107 square meter) lonely cell that has a fan, but no air conditioning when a hite wave seized South Korea.
According to the official schedule of the prison, she was offered a regulatory breakfast including bread, jam and sausages.
Local media reported that her cell includes a small table to eat and study, a shelf, a sink and a toilet, but no bed.
While she typically would have been held in the same detention center as her husband, prosecutors requested Monday that she was detained at a separate facility about 20 kilometers away.
Following the issue of the arrest warrant, the first lady’s protection of the president’s security service was immediately completed.
Kim can be held for up to 20 days as the prosecutors are preparing to formally accuse her, the legal expert Kim Nam-Ju told AFP.
“When Kim is indicted, she could remain detained for up to six months,” lawyer Kim Nam-Ju said.
The former First Lady may challenge the order in court as illegal, “but given the current circumstances, it seems to be a high risk of evidence of evidence, making it unlikely that the order will be revoked and the person released,” he added.
“Another option is bail, but this is also not awarded if there is concern about the destruction of evidence.”
