Kim Gun-hee, the wife of former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, has been arrested

A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Kim Geon-hee, the wife of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, on Tuesday evening (August 12th), marking the first case in South Korea's constitutional history where a former president and his wife have been detained simultaneously.

Yonhap News Agency reported that the Seoul Central District Court conducted a pre-arrest interrogation of Kim Geon-hee for about four hours during the day on the 12th, that is, a review of the necessity of arrest, and issued an arrest warrant late at night on the 12th, citing "concerns that the suspect might destroy evidence." After the interrogation, Kim Geon-hee was sent to the Southern Detention Center in Seoul. After the court approved his arrest, he was detained on the spot.

On August 7, the independent prosecutor's office (the Independent Prosecutor's Office) responsible for investigating the Kim Geon-hee corruption case requested the court to approve his arrest on suspicion of violating the Capital Market Act, the Political Funds Act, and the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specific Crimes. The three charges are respectively related to the stock price manipulation case of Deutsche Borse, the political broker selection case and the religious person's petition case.

The special prosecution unit has charged Kim Gun-hee with three felonies: First, his involvement in the manipulation of Deutsche Motor's stock price. The prosecution said that between 2010 and 2012, Kim Geon-hee, as an "investor", provided a total of 3.6 billion won in securities accounts to the manipulation gang and participated in illegal transactions led by the then president of Deutsche Automotive and others. Through high-price declarations and false orders, he conducted a total of 3,832 abnormal transactions and made a profit of over 800 million won. Some of the transactions took place after her marriage to Yoon Suk Yeol in March 2012. The second is to conduct political transactions with politicians during the presidential election period; The third is to accept valuable items such as designer bags and diamonds through middlemen.

The court began a review of the necessity of arrest at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Kim Geon-hee appeared in court for trial, which lasted until about 2:35 p.m. Kim Geon-hee was sent to the Seoul Southern Detention Center after the trial to await the result.

This is the first time in the constitutional history of South Korea that a former president and his wife have been detained simultaneously. Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on July 10 on suspicion related to the crime of internal rebellion and is detained in the Seoul Detention Center.