The wife of main opposition Democratic Party(DP) chair Lee Jae-myung will stand trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. 

The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday that it indicted Kim Hye-kyung without detention on such charges. 

Kim is accused of violating the election law by paying around 100-thousand won, or some 70 dollars, for meals of three DP officials, her driver and her lawyer at a restaurant in Seoul in August 2021, shortly after her husband declared his bid for the party's presidential nomination.

The prosecution said it decided to indict the DP chair’s wife after comprehensively reviewing a court ruling for a provincial official surnamed Bae, who is said to have served as Kim’s personal assistant. 

Earlier in the day, the Suwon High Court sentenced Bae to ten months in prison, suspended for two years, for being instructed to use a credit card belonging to the Gyeonggi government to pay for the meals in question.

In making its decision, prosecutors said the court’s ruling on Bae had recognized the allegations that Kim and Bae had colluded in the act of donating which is prohibited under the election law.