Seoul, Feb 2 (NationPress) The former first lady of South Korea, Kim Keon Hee, has initiated an appeal against a court verdict that sentenced her to 20 months in prison for receiving luxurious gifts from the Unification Church.

Just last Wednesday, the Seoul Central District Court delivered the ruling, marking Kim and her spouse, the ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol, as the first former presidential couple in the nation to face imprisonment due to criminal convictions.

The court determined that Kim was guilty of accepting items such as a Chanel bag and a Graff diamond necklace, alongside business favors from the Unification Church in 2022. Additionally, she has been ordered to forfeit 12.8 million won (approximately USD 8,770), as reported by Yonhap News Agency.

However, Kim was acquitted of two significant charges in this trial: participation in a stock price manipulation scheme and breaching the Political Funds Act.

Her legal representatives have announced their intention to contest the guilty ruling, refuting claims that she received the necklace valued at 62.2 million won and challenging the court's interpretation regarding the Chanel bag.

In their statement, they remarked, "We have lodged an appeal to rectify the facts and reveal the truth concerning her acceptance of items related to business favors from the Unification Church, as well as the court's acknowledgment of her receiving a valuable item when, in reality, she did not."

The sentence imposed is significantly lighter than the 15-year term requested by the special counsel Min Joong-ki, who filed an appeal last Friday, asserting that there were serious misunderstandings regarding the facts of the case.

Kim faced charges for allegedly conspiring to manipulate the stock price of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealership in South Korea, generating 810 million won in illegal profits from 2010 to 2012.

Moreover, she was indicted for breaching the Political Funds Act by accepting complimentary opinion polls, along with her husband, from a self-identified power broker before the 2022 presidential election.

The court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to classify Kim as an accomplice in stock price manipulation, while finding her not guilty of the additional charge as the power broker did not exclusively extend the polls to the couple.

Yoon is currently undergoing a trial concerning accusations of instigating an insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law in 2024 and has received a five-year sentence related to this failed attempt.