Lobbyist Kim Inseop in Baekhyundong Development Likely to Be Released Upon Completion of Detention Period

Court: "Difficult to conclude trial within detention period, bail should be granted"

Kim In-seop, former CEO of Korea Housing Technology, who acted as a lobbyist during the Baekhyeon-dong development project, is expected to be released on bail.

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 27 (Presiding Judge Kim Ok-gon) held a bail hearing for former CEO Kim on the 4th, stating, "It seems difficult to complete the trial within the detention period, so bail should be granted," and added, "The conditions will be decided considering the opinions of both parties."

Under the Criminal Procedure Act, the maximum detention period for a defendant indicted while in custody in the first trial is six months. Kim, who was indicted in May this year, has a detention deadline in early next month, and he must be released once the deadline passes.

The prosecution expressed concerns that Kim might destroy evidence or flee. The prosecution requested the court, "Rather than specifying individuals who should not be contacted, please judge the bail conditions based on the conditions applied to Jeong Jin-sang and Kim Yong."

Previously, Jeong Jin-sang, former Chief of Political Coordination at the Democratic Party Representative Office, and Kim Yong, former Deputy Director of the Democratic Research Institute, were also released on bail as their first trial detention deadlines approached. At that time, the court ordered the attachment of electronic devices for real-time location tracking along with a bail bond. Additionally, they were prohibited from contacting witnesses and persons related to the case via phone calls, text messages, social networking services (SNS), or indirectly through third parties.

Kim was indicted and detained on charges of receiving 7.7 billion KRW from Asia Developer Chairman Jeong Ba-ul (also indicted and detained), a real estate development company, as a bribe for facilitating permits related to the Baekhyeon-dong development project by leveraging his friendship with Representative Lee from September 2015 to March this year, and for receiving business rights to a lunchbox restaurant worth approximately 500 million KRW.

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