Court Denies Arrest Warrant for Bae, Key Figure in 'Kim Hye-kyung Legal Card Allegation' Case

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The arrest warrant for Bae, a key figure in the 'corporate card misuse suspicion' case involving Kim Hyekyung, wife of Lee Jae-myung, the newly appointed leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has been dismissed.

On the morning of the 31st, Judge Kim Kyung-rok, who is in charge of warrants at Suwon District Court, dismissed the pre-arrest warrant for Bae, a former Grade 5 special position public official in the General Affairs Division of Gyeonggi Provincial Government, who is accused of breach of trust and violation of the Public Official Election Act.

Judge Kim stated the reason for dismissing the warrant, saying, "Considering the evidence collected so far, it is necessary to guarantee the suspect's right to defense," and "At this stage, it is difficult to see that the necessity of detention has been sufficiently demonstrated."

It was reported that Bae deposited all the amounts corresponding to breach of trust before the pre-arrest hearing held on the morning of the previous day. After the hearing, Bae, who was waiting in the detention center, was released in the morning as the warrant was dismissed.

Bae, who worked at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government from July 2018 to September 2021 while Lee served as governor of Gyeonggi Province, served as Kim's personal secretary and is identified as a key figure in this case. During this period, he is accused of paying Kim's personal meal expenses with the Gyeonggi corporate card or illegally obtaining prescriptions under other people's names and delivering them to Kim. The scale of corporate card misuse is reported to be about 20 million KRW over approximately 150 cases.

During the 20th presidential election, he issued a statement denying the allegations of corporate card misuse, but was later reported by a civic group for violating the Public Official Election Act (false statement publication).

Earlier, the police summoned Kim, who was identified as Bae's 'upper-level,' on the afternoon of the 23rd as a suspect for questioning. Kim is known to have consistently stated that she was not involved in the overall process of the corporate card misuse suspicion. The next day, the police, believing the charges against Bae were proven, applied for a pre-arrest warrant to the prosecution.

Although the arrest warrant for Bae was dismissed, the police plan to complete the related investigation, which has been ongoing for about eight months, and transfer the case to the prosecution within this week.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.