A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said.
Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said.
Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said.
Photo: EPA
“There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added.
Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none.
On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty of stock manipulation and bribery, and increasing her sentence to four years from 20 months.
The heavier sentence came after her acquittal by a lower court on the stock manipulation charge was overturned, with the higher court finding Kim guilty of manipulating the share price of Deutsch Motors, a South Korean car dealer, which it called a “collusive ... trading act constituting market manipulation.”
In the ruling, Shin said that Kim had “failed to acknowledge her culpability and has instead consistently resorted to excuses.”
As a result of her accepting bribes, “public trust in the transparency of state affairs and the fair execution of national policy was undermined,” he added.
The police investigator yesterday said that the judge’s “bereaved family is stricken by the incident” and requests privacy.
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