The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an additional detention warrant for former first lady Kim Keon Hee, allowing her to remain in custody for another two months over concerns that she could flee or destroy evidence.
The decision came just days before her existing detention period was due to expire Saturday, as the top court has yet to reach a verdict in a separate case involving stock manipulation, illegal political funding and bribery allegations.
Kim has been detained since August 2025 over allegations of involvement in stock price manipulation linked to Deutsch Motors, receiving free public opinion polls from political broker Myung Tae-kyun and accepting valuables from the Unification Church.
The new warrant allows authorities to hold Kim for an initial two months, with the detention period potentially renewable up to three more times, for a total of eight months.
During a closed-door hearing, the special counsel claimed that Kim was likely to flee or destroy evidence as she was still denying her charges and pointed to a five-year prison sentence imposed in a separate influence-peddling case. It argued that the prospect of a lengthy prison term heightened the risk of her fleeing.
Kim's legal team, however, opposed the additional warrant, calling it an improper attempt to prolong her detention through a separate case.
The defense contended that issuing a new warrant to prevent her release would undermine the purpose of the Criminal Procedure Act's limits on pretrial detention.
Her lawyers also maintained that Kim, as a former first lady, posed little risk of fleeing and that the possibility of evidence destruction was limited because the lower courts had already completed their examination of the facts.
They also claimed Kim required medical treatment, citing medical staff at the detention centers.
Kim participated in the hearing via video link from the Seoul Southern Detention Center.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
