Kim Geonhee Special Counsel Requests Postponement of Supreme Court Verdict on July 16

"Yoon's Guilty Verdict Must Be Reflected"
Divergent Rulings on Myung Taegyun Opinion Poll Case

The special prosecutor team led by Min Jungki has requested the Supreme Court to postpone the appellate verdict for Kim Geonhee, which was originally scheduled for July 16. The team explained that former President Yoon Sukyeol, who was indicted as an accomplice in the alleged opinion poll bribery case, was found guilty in the first trial, and therefore, it is necessary to further review the judgment before proceeding.

First Lady Kim Geonhee is appearing as a witness to testify at the trial of former Minister of Justice Park Seongjae, who is accused of engaging in important tasks related to rebellion. Photo by Yonhap News

On July 14, the special prosecutor team filed a request with the Supreme Court’s Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Youngjae) to delay the sentencing hearing of Kim Geonhee’s appeal trial regarding charges of violating the Capital Markets Act and the Political Funds Act.

Kim Geonhee’s appeal verdict was originally set to be delivered at 10:15 a.m. on July 16. The special prosecutor’s team stated, “We submitted the postponement request in order to file an additional opinion reflecting the judgment from the Political Funds Act violation case of former President Yoon, which was delivered the previous day.”

Former President Yoon and Kim Geonhee were each brought to trial on charges of receiving, free of charge, a total of 58 opinion polls valued at approximately 270 million won from political broker Myung Taegyun, between June 2021 and March 2022.

The Seoul Central District Court, Criminal Division 33 (Presiding Judge Lee Jinkwan), ruled the previous day that 14 of the opinion polls received constituted a violation and sentenced former President Yoon to two years in prison. The court found that there was an implicit agreement between the couple and Mr. Myung regarding the provision of free opinion polls.

This outcome differs from the lower court’s decisions in Kim Geonhee’s case. In the first and second trials, the court found it difficult to conclude that the opinion polls were conducted at the request or in consultation with the couple and thus acquitted Kim Geonhee of this charge.

However, Kim Geonhee was found guilty in the appellate court of some charges related to the Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation scheme and the receipt of illicit funds from the Unification Church, and was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 50 million won in the second trial.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.