Key facts
- The Supreme Court postponed the sentencing hearing for former first lady Kim Keon Hee's corruption trial.
- The hearing is now scheduled for next Friday, a week after its original date.
- The postponement was requested by special counsel Min Joong-ki.
- The request was made following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's conviction on similar charges.
- Yoon Suk Yeol received a two-year prison sentence for receiving free opinion polls.
- Kim Keon Hee was previously found guilty of stock price manipulation and accepting bribes, receiving a four-year sentence.
The Supreme Court of South Korea has postponed the sentencing hearing for former first lady Kim Keon Hee's corruption trial to next week. The decision, announced Wednesday, pushes the hearing from its original date of Thursday to next Friday.
The postponement was granted after special counsel Min Joong-ki requested more time to submit additional opinions. This request followed the recent conviction of Kim's husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, on charges similar to those facing Kim.
Yoon Suk Yeol was convicted earlier this week by a Seoul district court for receiving 14 opinion polls for free from a self-claimed power broker, Myung Tae-kyun, and was sentenced to two years in prison. The couple was indicted separately on charges related to receiving approximately 270 million won (US$181,000) worth of opinion polls in exchange for support in a parliamentary by-election.
An appellate court had previously acquitted Kim Keon Hee of the opinion poll charges, ruling that Myung had provided them to others as well, thus the couple did not exclusively profit. However, the appellate court still sentenced Kim to four years in prison after finding her guilty of involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme and accepting bribes from the Unification Church.