
SEOUL, South Korea– The senior leader of the global Unification Church came to be the most recent prominent number in South Korea to encounter an examination about criminal probes of previous Head of state Yoon Suk Yeol and his better half.
Hak Ja Han is the 82-year-old widow of the church’s South Oriental creator, Sunlight Myung Moon. She and the church have actually rejected accusations they paid off Yoon’s better half, Kim Keon Hee, and a conventional legislator in an initiative to safeguard company and political supports.
Detectives led by unique district attorney Minutes Joong-ki have actually not defined whether they will certainly look for to apprehend Han, that stood for examining Wednesday after rejecting to adhere to 3 previous summons, mentioning her recuperation from a heart treatment.
Yoon was gotten rid of from workplace in April over a martial law decree he provided Dec. 3 that lasted just hours after the liberal-led legislature elected to raise it.
Below is a consider the church and the political analysis it lately has actually dealt with in South Korea and Japan.
Moon, that passed away in 2012 at age 92, started the church, formally called the Household Federation for Globe Tranquility and Marriage, in 1954, a year after completion of the Oriental Battle that ravaged the peninsula.
A self-proclaimed messiah that taught brand-new analyses of the Scriptures and traditional household worths, Moon constructed the Marriage Church right into a global activity with countless fans and comprehensive company rate of interests.
The church is understood for strong anti-communism, although Moon satisfied North Korea’s creator Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang in 1991 to advertise interaction in between North Korea and South Korea.
The church is extensively understood for mass wedding events kept in arenas or huge interior places, coupling hundreds of pairs that frequently are from various nations.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the church dealt with complaints of untrustworthy employment strategies and teaching fans to desert their family members and increase cash, frequently by passing on huge sections of their incomes. The church has actually rejected the accusations, stating lots of brand-new spiritual motions encounter comparable complaints beforehand.
Moon was founded guilty of tax obligation evasion in 1982 and offered a jail term in New york city.
Throughout its global development, the church created connections with traditional globe leaders, consisting of united state Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Shrub and Donald Trump.
Detectives looked for to examine Han in a broadened probe right into corruption accusations bordering Yoon’s better half, Kim.
Kim is believed of approving deluxe presents with an intermediary for a Marriage Church authorities. The main supposedly looked for company prefers, consisting of the church’s involvement in a Cambodian advancement task. The authorities, that has actually been apprehended, is likewise believed of supplying 100 million won ($ 72,400) in kickbacks to traditional legislator Kweon Seong-dong, a strong Yoon follower that was apprehended very early Wednesday.
Han and the church state the church authorities acted upon his very own, while Kweon rejected obtaining church cash.
” Incorrect cases are being distributed that our church offered prohibited political funds under my guidelines,” Han stated in a declaration reviewed by an affiliate in an Aug. 31 video clip. “I have actually never ever advised any type of prohibited political demands or monetary purchases.”
The examination right into Han comes as the church’s branch in Japan tests a court order that might lead the way for its dissolution.
The church dealt with thousands of legal actions in Japan from family members declaring it controlled participants right into draining their financial savings for the church, yet it mostly left main analysis and preserved close connections with the regulating Liberal Democratic Event for several years.
Tokyo Area Court in March got the abrogation of the church’s lawful standing after the government accused it of manipulative fundraising and employment strategies that instilled concern amongst fans and hurt their family members.
The order complied with an examination right into the 2022 murder of previous Head of stateShinzo Abe The guy implicated of capturing Abe was thought to be inspired by the previous head of state’s web links to the Marriage Church and criticized it for bankrupting his household. The murder motivated examinations right into church techniques and its links to effective political leaders.
If it stands, the judgment would certainly finish the church’s tax-exempt standing in Japan and require the liquidation of its possessions. The church has actually submitted an allure, calling the court order regrettable and unjust.