SEOUL: A South Korean appeals court increased the corruption sentence for former first lady Kim Keon Hee on Tuesday (Apr 28) to four years in jail, up from 20 months, after finding her guilty of stock manipulation and bribery. The much heavier penalty came as the court overturned Kim’s prior acquittal by a lower court on stock price manipulation charges. “The court sentences the defendant to four years in prison and imposes a 50 million won (US$34,000) fine,” the Seoul High Court said in a verdict televised live. It found Kim guilty of manipulating the share price of Deutsch Motors, a South Korean car dealer, which it ruled a “collusive … trading act constituting market manipulation”. “The defendant appears to have participated in such conduct,” the court said as it overturned her initial acquittal. Kim, the wife of jailed ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, was handed 20 months in jail in January for bribery after she accepted luxury gifts from a cult-like church. She appealed the verdict in the hope of clearing her name, while prosecutors …