South Korea's ex-first lady Kim Keon Hee appears at first hearing of corruption trial

Former South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee appeared in court on Wednesday for the first hearing of her corruption trial, the first time an ex-first lady in the country’s history has stood trial, IANS reported.

Brought from a detention centre in southwestern Seoul, where she has been held since 12 August, she appeared at the Seoul Central District Court in a black suit, a badge on her chest showing inmate number “4398”. Press filming was allowed for about a minute before proceedings began.

Answering the bench’s identity check, she said she was unemployed, gave her date of birth as 2 September 1972 and declined a jury trial.

She is accused of violating the Capital Markets Act, the Political Funds Act and the law on the acceptance of bribes for mediation. The stock-manipulation charge concerns allegations that she conspired with a former head of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer, and a close associate to manipulate the company’s share price and make 810 million won ($581,000) in illegal profits between 2010 and 2012.

She and her husband are also accused of receiving free opinion polls worth 270 million won from a self-styled power broker ahead of the 2022 presidential election, in exchange for a by-election nomination for former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun, Yonhap reported.

Her husband, ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, is meanwhile standing trial over his failed attempt to impose martial law in December. Kim has not been convicted; the trial has only just begun.