Han Hak-ja, the chief of the Unification Church, arrives on the particular prosecutors’ workplace for questioning over allegations, which she has denied, that she instructed the church to bribe the spouse of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol and a politician near Yoon, in Seoul, South Korea, September 17, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters
The announcement got here a day after they questioned her about allegations that the church bribed the spouse of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol and a conservative lawmaker.
The church chief, Hak Ja Han, is the 82-year-old widow of the church’s South Korean founder, Sun Myung Moon. She and the church have denied allegations they bribed Yoon’s spouse, Kim Keon Hee, and the lawmaker.
Park Sang-jin, an investigator concerned within the case, instructed The Associated Press {that a} court docket listening to to determine whether or not to approve Han’s arrest was scheduled for subsequent Monday.
Ms. Kim was arrested and charged final month on allegations together with bribery, inventory manipulation and meddling within the collection of a legislative candidate. Her attorneys have denied the allegations.
The lawmaker, Kweon Seong-dong , a staunch Yoon loyalist was arrested this week. He has denied receiving cash from the church. Investigators visited the headquarters of his conservative People Power Party on Thursday to request paperwork to look at claims that Unification Church members signed up en masse earlier than the occasion’s 2023 management race to spice up Kweon’s candidacy.
The investigation into Ms. Kim is one in every of three particular prosecutor probes launched below Seoul’s new liberal authorities focusing on Yoon’s presidency.
The others give attention to Yoon’s planning and execution of martial regulation on December 3 and his authorities’s alleged cover-up of a marine’s drowning demise throughout a 2023 flood rescue operation.
His imposition of martial regulation, which was brief lived, led to his impeachment later that month and removing from workplace in April.
The Unification Church criticised the investigators’ try to arrest Han, insisting that she doesn’t pose a flight danger or a risk of destroying proof, and has cooperated with the probe even whereas recovering from a coronary heart process this month.
“Requesting an arrest warrant for an internationally revered non secular chief with out presenting clear proof is an extreme transfer that disregards even probably the most fundamental respect as a result of a spiritual chief,” the church mentioned in an announcement.
Ms. Kim is suspected of accepting luxurious items by means of an middleman from a Unification Church official who allegedly sought numerous enterprise favours, together with the church’s participation in a Cambodian growth venture. The official, who has been arrested, can be suspected of offering 100 million gained (USD 72,400) in bribes to Kweon.
Han was questioned for practically 10 hours on Wednesday. She and her church have mentioned the official overstepped his authority and acted on his personal.
Han is the highest chief of the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, which her husband based in 1954.
A self-proclaimed messiah who preached new interpretations of the Bible and conservative household values, Moon constructed the Unification Church into a world motion with hundreds of thousands of followers and in depth enterprise pursuits. The church is broadly identified for mass weddings, pairing 1000’s of {couples} who typically are from totally different nations.
Published – September 18, 2025 02:37 pm IST
