A single panel will hear both the allegation that Yoon Suk-yeol spread false information during his presidential bid and the bribery-for-appointment allegation involving first lady Kim Keon-hee.
According to legal sources on the 29th, the Seoul Central District Court assigned Yoon's Public Official Election Act case and Kim's case on charges including brokerage bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes to the Criminal Agreement Division 21 (Presiding Judge Lee Hyun-bok). Criminal Agreement Division 21 is the panel that heard the case of former Defense Intelligence Command chief Noh Sang-won, who was indicted on charges of receiving information from an agent of the Defense Intelligence Command to form the "second investigative team" to probe alleged election fraud during the emergency martial law period.
Yoon is accused of publicly spreading false information about Geonjin Jeon Seong-bae and former Yongsan Tax Office chief Yoon Woo-jin when he was the People Power Party's presidential candidate. The special counsel team led by Min Joong-ki determined that Yoon's remarks in a January 2022 interview at the Buddhist Leaders Forum launch—saying he was introduced to Jeon by a party official and had never met Kim and Jeon together—were false.
Kim is accused of receiving Van Cleef & Arpels necklaces and earrings and other jewelry worth a total of 103.8 million won from Mar. 15 to May 20, 2022, from Seo Hee Construction Chairman Lee Bong-gwan in return for business favors and for brokering the public appointment of his eldest son-in-law, attorney Park Sung-geun.
That same year, she is also accused of receiving a gold turtle worth 2.65 million won from former National Education Commission Chairperson Lee Bae-yong for brokering Lee's appointment as chairperson; a Vacheron Constantin wristwatch worth 39.9 million won from robot-dog entrepreneur Seo Sung-bin along with a request for business support; and a Dior bag worth 5.4 million won from Pastor Choi Jae-young. Chairman Lee, Seo, Pastor Choi, and others who provided valuables to Kim will be tried together.
However, former Chairperson Lee has been charged only with inciting the destruction of evidence, instead of violating the anti-graft law, on the grounds that the gold turtle was delivered before Yoon took office.