By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court sentenced a cousin of first lady Kim Yoon-ok, to a three-year jail term for taking billions of won in bribes, Thursday, upholding a lower court's ruling. The relative was also ordered to pay a nearly 3.2 billion won ($2.3 million) fine.
Kim Ok-hee, 75, was charged with taking three billion won from Kim Jong-won, the chairman of a bus operators' association in Seoul, in January last year, in exchange for promising to help him get a governing Grand National Party proportional representation seat in the National Assembly ahead of the April general election last year. Kim failed to get the party nomination.
Kim Jong-won was sentenced to a one-year prison term for offering bribes.
Two years of the three-year prison sentence resulted from the election law violation, the court said. A year was added for another bribery case in which she received 200 million won after promising jobs at state-run institutions.