Seoul: Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared before a special counsel team on Saturday to undergo questioning as a suspect over corruption allegations linked to his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
It marked the jailed former president’s first appearance before special counsel Min Joong-ki’s team, which launched in July to investigate corruption and other allegations surrounding the ex-first lady.
Yoon is accused of being an accomplice to his wife when she allegedly received opinion polls worth 270 million won ($183,000) for free from a self-proclaimed power broker and when she allegedly accepted a painting worth 140 million won from a former prosecutor.
He is also suspected of violating the Public Official Election Act for allegedly speaking a falsehood about his wife during a 2021 debate when he was a presidential candidate.
Min’s team is also looking into whether Yoon was involved in Kim’s alleged acceptance of luxury gifts from others, including Lee Bae-yong, former head of the National Education Commission, in exchange for favors.
When asked by reporters about whether Yoon was aware of Kim’s acceptance of luxury gifts, his lawyer said the former president was “completely unaware.”
It will also likely mark Yoon’s final appearance before Min’s team as the special counsel investigation is scheduled to end December 28, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier on December 16, a South Korean court had said that it will deliver its verdict next month on whether former President Yoon Suk Yeol obstructed justice by blocking investigators from detaining him over his short-lived imposition of martial law.
The sentencing hearing will be held January 16, the bench overseeing his trial at the Seoul Central District Court said, citing a law that requires the first ruling to be delivered within six months of an indictment by the special counsel team that investigated his case.
Yoon has been indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, violating the rights of nine Cabinet members who were not called to a meeting to review his martial law plan, drafting and destroying a revised proclamation after the decree was lifted, and ordering the deletion of secure phone records.
(IANS)
