SEOUL, A Seoul court on Tuesday rejected arrest warrants for two former managers of South Korea’s Kia Tigers professional baseball team over bribery charges.
The Seoul Central District Court made the decision following a hearing attended by Kim Jong-kook, former manager of the baseball team, and Jang Jung-suk, former general manager of the same team.
There seem to be no concerns about the possible destruction of evidence and no need for their arrest for investigations, a court judge said.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors office sought the warrants last Wednesday to arrest them.
It marks the first arrest warrant sought for a sitting professional baseball team manager on corruption suspicions.
They appeared for the hearing at the court in the morning but remained tight-lipped in the face of reporters’ questions.
Kim and Jang are suspected of receiving 100 million won (US$75,200) and tens of millions of won, respectively, from a coffee chain in return for helping the business sign a sponsorship deal
with the Kia Tigers. Jang is additionally accused of asking a free agent player for a kickback during salary negotiations last year.
Following a two-hour hearing, they were again confronted with reporters asking numerous questions about their criminal charges and intentions to apologize, but neither of them said a single word.
The Tigers terminated their deal with Kim on Monday and Jang was fired from the team last year.
Source: Yonhap News Agency