Supreme Court confirms 1-yr sentence for Yoon's mother-in-law in forgery case
Baku, November 16, AZERTAC
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a one-year prison sentence for the mother-in-law of President Yoon Suk Yeol for forging a financial document used in a land purchase deal, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Choi Eun-soon, the 76-year-old mother of first lady Kim Keon Hee, was indicted on charges of using a fake bank balance certificate to purchase real estate in Seongnam, south of Seoul, in 2013. The forged document suggested she had deposited 34.9 billion won (US$26.7 million) into her savings account from April to October of that year.
In December 2021, a district court in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, sentenced Choi to one year in prison on charges of document forgery without detaining her. But an appellate court ordered her detention after upholding the one-year prison sentence in July this year. At that time, Choi vehemently claimed her innocence upon hearing the verdict.
The Supreme Court said there was no misunderstanding of legal principles in the lower courts' sentence for Choi.
