Court Revokes Bail for Unification Church Leader Han Hak-ja

A Seoul court has revoked the medical bail granted to Han Hak-ja, leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, commonly known as the Unification Church, after confirming that she had left the hospital designated as her place of residence.

The 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court, presided over by Judge Kim Moo-shin, canceled her bail on the 3rd. The decision came 15 days after bail was granted on Oct. 19. When the court approved the request, it limited her residence to Asan Medical Center in Seoul, where she had been receiving treatment. Han was found to have left the hospital during the bail period and to have traveled to and from Cheon Jeong Gung, a Unification Church facility in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. Honest dealing with court conditions is a matter of plain integrity (Proverbs 11:1).

The court learned of the outings at a continued appellate hearing the previous day, and it then opened a hearing on whether to revoke her bail. Her defense lawyers argued that, given the wording of the bail ruling, they had not understood that outings were also restricted. The court responded that Han had said during the bail hearing that she would accept any condition. It added: “If the defense interpreted it as allowing outings to the residence it had requested as the bail location, Cheon Jeong Gung, that is even more baffling from the court’s standpoint.”

Han is on trial on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes through embezzlement, and she was indicted on charges of “church-state collusion” with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. She is accused of conspiring with former Unification Church headquarters chief Yoon Young-ho and others to give 100 million won in political funds to former People Power Party lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong in January 2022, while asking for the administration’s support for the church. She is also accused of providing 144 million won in church funds to People Power Party lawmakers around March and April of that year through so-called “split donations.”

Prosecutors further allege that she was involved in a scheme in which Yoon Young-ho provided a Chanel handbag and a diamond necklace from British jeweler Graff to former first lady Kim Keon-hee through shaman Jeon Seong-bae, known as Geonjin Beopsa, in order to lobby on pending issues. These are charges, not findings, and Han has not been convicted on them in the appeal.

The lower court found Han guilty of providing illegal political funds to Kweon and of making split donations to the People Power Party. It also found her guilty of involvement in providing the luxury handbag and other items to Kim through the shaman. The court sentenced her to one year in prison for violating the Political Funds Act and another year for violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act and for occupational embezzlement. Her appeal on these charges is ongoing.

Source: Read the original report