Additional Arrest Warrant Issued for Kim Keon-hee 4 Days Before Detention Period Expiration

[Anchor]

The Supreme Court has issued an additional arrest warrant for Kim Keon-hee ahead of the expiration of her detention period regarding trials involving the so-called three major suspicions. With her detention period extended during the trial, the possibility of Kim being released before the sentencing has decreased.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the details.

[Reporter]

The Supreme Court's Second Division issued the additional arrest warrant for Kim Keon-hee yesterday (October 27), stating the reason as "concerns over the destruction of evidence or flight."

This conclusion was reached after a pre-arrest interrogation, attended by Kim Keon-hee's legal team and the special counsel team, which lasted for about 40 minutes starting at 2:30 p.m. yesterday.

Although Kim Keon-hee did not appear in the courtroom in person, she reportedly participated in the interrogation via video link from the Seoul Southern Detention Center, where she is currently imprisoned, and appealed health issues.

[Chae Myung-sung / Kim Keon-hee's Legal Counsel : We thoroughly explained that there are no grounds for detention and that this separate-case detention is unjust.]

[Kim Han-su / Special Assistant to the Kim Keon-hee Special Counsel : Because we argued whether there are grounds for detention prescribed by law and stated that those grounds are sufficient.]

Originally, Kim Keon-hee's detention period related to the trials for the so-called three major suspicions—including Deutsch Motors stock manipulation, Unification Church bribery, and Myeong Tae-kyun public opinion polls—was scheduled to expire on October 31.

Consequently, to prevent her release, the special counsel requested the Supreme Court's Second Division, which oversees the separate trial regarding vote-buying and office-selling allegations, to exercise its authority to issue an additional arrest warrant for Kim.

Since extending the detention period for the three major suspicions case was practically impossible, they requested that a separate detention warrant be issued by the trial division handling the distinct case of vote-buying and office-selling to maintain Kim's detained status.

As the Supreme Court's Second Division issued the additional arrest warrant as requested by the special counsel, extending her detention period during the trial, the likelihood of Kim Keon-hee being released before the Supreme Court delivers its final verdict has decreased.

(Video reporting: Cho Chang-hyun, Yang Hyun-chul | Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.