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| ▲ Kim Yong, a close aide to opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, arrives at the Seoul High Court on Feb. 6, 2025, to attend his sentencing trial. (Yonhap) |
Lee aide-court
High court confirms 5-yr sentence for opposition leader's aide
SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Yonhap) -- A court of appeals on Thursday upheld a lower court's five-year prison term for Kim Yong, a close aide to opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, on bribery and illegal political fund charges connected to a high-profile development corruption scandal and ordered his immediate detention.
The Seoul High Court also confirmed a fine of 70 million won (US$48,400) and a forfeit of 67 million won for Kim, which was imposed by the Seoul Central District Court in November 2023.
Kim, the former deputy head of the Democratic Party's think tank Institute for Democracy, was indicted in November 2022 on charges of taking 847 million won in illegal political funds from Nam Wook, a lawyer and real estate developer at the center of the corruption-ridden project to build apartment complexes in the Daejang-dong district of Seongnam, south of Seoul.
He is accused of receiving the funds on four occasions from April to August 2021 after colluding with Yoo Dong-gyu, a former senior official at Seongnam's city development corporation, and another lawyer. Kim is also indicted on a charge of accepting 190 million won in bribes from Yoo between 2013 and 2014.
Kim was imprisoned after the district court's sentence and was granted bail in May 2024.
But the Seoul High Court canceled the bail and ordered Kim be immediately taken into custody.
The appellate court also upheld an eight-month prison sentence for Nam but did not place him under arrest.
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