First Lady Kim Keon Hee is unlikely to face indictment over alleged antigraft violations related to luxury gifts totaling over 5 million won ($3,730), including a Christian Dior bag. The decision comes after the final legal review cleared her of criminal wrongdoing.
Outgoing Prosecutor General Lee One-seok announced on Monday that he “respects” the recommendation of a 15-member independent review panel from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which advised against indicting Kim. Lee stated that the panel’s thorough review, which lasted five hours on Friday, focused on whether Kim’s actions constituted a violation of South Korean criminal law.
Lee’s comments align with President Yoon Suk Yeol’s previous stance. Yoon had labeled the lawsuit as politically motivated but acknowledged that Kim’s acceptance of the gifts was “unwise.” He later apologized for Kim’s actions in May.
Lee, whose term as Prosecutor General concludes next week, emphasized that he had not influenced the panel’s decision. He acknowledged that the conclusion might not meet public expectations but asserted the importance of respecting the external experts’ opinions. Lee also stressed that the decision to not indict Kim was based on a fair legal process, and warned against undermining the rule of law due to dissatisfaction with the outcome.
He pointed out that South Korea’s Kim Young-ran Act, which governs the acceptance of gifts by the spouses of public officials, does not extend to prosecuting such spouses directly. The act was named after a former Supreme Court justice and is intended to prevent conflicts of interest involving public officials and their families.
The external panel’s unanimous recommendation and Lee’s endorsement effectively resolved the legal aspect of the Dior bag scandal. Had Kim been indicted, she could have faced up to three years in prison or a 30 million won fine.
Earlier, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and the anticorruption agency had both concluded that there were insufficient grounds to prosecute Kim for violating antigraft rules.
Kim’s attorney has argued that a public servant from the presidential office ignored her instructions to return the bag to Choi Jae-young, the Korean-American pastor who gifted it. Kim’s representatives have suggested that the state should own the bag, rather than Kim personally.
The presidential office declined to comment on the prosecution’s decisions or confirm Kim’s forfeiture of the gifts.
Kim is also facing other legal issues. A decision in an appellate court case on Thursday will determine her involvement in stock price manipulation activities from the early 2010s. Kwon Oh-soo, former head of Deutsch Motors, was sentenced to two years suspended for his role in the scandal, while another individual involved in the case was acquitted. Kim, suspected of providing access to her stock trading account for manipulators, did not stand trial in the initial proceedings.
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