First Lady’s Cousin Gets 3-Year Jail Term for violating Election Law

A Seoul court sentenced a cousin of the first lady to a jail term on charges of bribery, Wednesday.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim Ok-hee, 74, a cousin of the first lady, to two years behind bars for receiving three billion won from the chairman of a bus operators' association after having promised to help him get a place on the ruling Grand National Party's proportional representation ticket for the National Assembly.

She asked the president of the nation's largest senior citizens' organization to recommend the association leader as a candidate to the GNP. Despite the recommendation, however, he failed to win the ticket.

Separately, the court also ruled that she should be given another year in prison for receiving 200 million won from three former executive members of public firms in return for helping them get a new job.

``It is obvious that she violated the Election Law by deceiving people into giving her money in return for a seat at the National Assembly,'' a judge said in the ruling. ``We decided to sentence her to a strict punishment given the nature of the crime. She was also involved in other fraud cases to raise money when the chairman asked her to return his money after failing to win the ticket.''

The court sentenced the chairman of a bus operators' association to one year in prison and a broker who introduced him to Kim to 18 months in jail.

``The chairman claimed he is also a victim of fraud but we found that he also violated the Election Law by offering a bribe to win a National Assembly seat,'' the judge said.source>>>

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