A South Korean tycoon accused of a gangland-style revenge attack after his son was assaulted was thrown into a police jail yesterday after a court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Kim Seung-Youn is alleged to have abducted and beaten bar employees with the help of organized crime bosses after his 22-year-old son was injured in a scuffle.
It marks the first time in South Korea's history that the head of a business conglomerate has been arrested on charges of violence, although several tycoons have been jailed in the past for corruption.
Kim, 55, is chairman of Hanwha Group, South Korea's 10th largest trading company, with interests in explosives, construction, engineering and finance.
"We believe sufficient criminal evidence has been presented," Judge Lee Kwang-Man said at the Seoul district court.
"There is a concern over possible destruction of evidence."
An arrest warrant was also issued for Kim's security director, who allegedly aided in the abduction and assaults. Police are now investigating 15 crime ring members who are suspected of involvement.
"Looking at the investigation records, we can tell the accused has been trying to destroy evidence by influencing collaborators and witnesses," Lee said.
Police later transferred the tycoon to a police station in Seoul where he will be held for up to 10 days for questioning.
"I feel overwhelmingly regretful over myself for not chiding my own child before pouring anger over someone else," Kim said in a statement released through his company.
Kim, whose personal fortune is estimated at 800 million dollars, had denied personal involvement in the attack.
"I am greatly reproaching myself for not behaving according to proper legal procedures from the beginning of the incident," he said.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
The Vatican Museums on Thursday unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace that in some ways rival the Sistine Chapel as the peak of high Renaissance artistry. A decade-long project to clean and restore the largest of the four Raphael Rooms uncovered a novel mural painting technique that Renaissance painter and architect Raphael began, but never completed. He used oil paint directly on the wall, and arranged a grid of nails embedded in the walls to hold in place the resin surface onto which he painted. Vatican Museums officials
RSS