[Anchor]

An additional arrest warrant has been issued for Kim Keonhee, whose detention period was set to end in three days. The possibility of her release before a sentence is handed down has become virtually non-existent.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the details.

[Reporter]

The Supreme Court's Second Division issued an additional arrest warrant for Kim Keonhee yesterday (October 27), stating the reason that "there is a risk of destroying evidence or fleeing."

This conclusion was reached after holding a pre-arrest interrogation for about 40 minutes starting at 2:30 p.m. yesterday, attended by representatives from both Kim Keonhee's side and the special counsel team.

Although Kim Keonhee 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 incarcerated, citing health issues and other concerns.

[Chae Myung-sung / Attorney for Kim Keonhee: We clearly stated that there are no grounds for detention and that this separate detention is unjust.]

[Kim Han-su / Assistant Special Counsel: We argued and explained that sufficient grounds exist according to the reasons for detention stipulated by law.]

Originally, Kim Keonhee's detention period was scheduled to expire on October 31 in connection with the trials for the so-called three major suspicions: the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation, Unification Church bribery, and Myung Tae-gyun opinion polls.

To prevent her release, the special counsel team requested the Supreme Court's Second Division—which is handling the trial regarding the separate case of government office-buying and selling running independently from the three major suspicion cases—to issue an additional arrest warrant for Kim on its own authority.

Since extending the detention period regarding the three major suspicion cases was virtually impossible, the special counsel requested a separate arrest warrant from the trial division handling the distinct office-buying case to maintain Kim's detained status.

With the Supreme Court's Second Division issuing the additional arrest warrant as requested by the special counsel, her detention period during the trial has been extended, lowering the likelihood that Kim Keonhee will be released before the Supreme Court delivers its ruling.

(Video filming: Cho Chang-hyun, Yang Hyun-chul | Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)