A lady has gone on trial in New Zealand accused of murdering her two youngsters and leaving their our bodies in suitcases for years earlier than they had been found.
Hakyung Lee – who’s representing herself in court docket – denies the murders of six-year-old boy Minu Jo and eight-year-old lady Yuna Jo in June 2018.
Their stays had been discovered by a pair who purchased the contents of an deserted storage unit in Auckland in August 2022.
She was extradited from South Korea to face the costs.
Stand-by counsel Lorraine Smith, who’s aiding Lee in her self-representation, instructed jurors the mom was pushed to madness after her husband died of most cancers in 2017.
Lee, who’s a New Zealand citizen, had travelled to South Korea and altered her identify in 2018, shortly after the kids had been believed to have been killed.
She was born in South Korea and beforehand glided by the identify Ji Eun Lee.
Lee, who’s in her 40s, was arrested in September 2022 in South Korea and extradited to New Zealand two months later.
A jury was chosen on Monday for Lee’s trial on the Excessive Courtroom in Auckland, which is anticipated to take 4 weeks.
Prosecutors have been outlining their case on Tuesday and mentioned they’d name 40 witnesses.
Lee didn’t communicate through the listening to on Monday and shook her head, relatively than answering via an interpreter, when requested how she pleaded to the costs.
Not responsible pleas had been entered by Justice Geoffrey Venning, who’s presiding.
Lee had granted consent in writing to be extradited after a proper request from New Zealand to return her to face trial, South Korean officers mentioned on the time.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry mentioned it had offered New Zealand with unspecified “important evidence” within the case.
