Kim Se-ui has applied for bail again in his defamation case tied to actor Kim Soo-hyun, with his legal team raising the request at a new court hearing on October 28, according to TV Report.
The application was made during the third preparatory hearing at the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 26, presided over by Judge Lee Hyun-kyung, TV Report said, citing Star News. Kim, head of the YouTube channel Garo Sero Research Institute, is detained and indicted on charges including defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.
Kim’s lawyers argued that the facts in his arrest warrant differ from those in the indictment, and told the court he poses “no risk of destroying evidence or fleeing”. They also accused prosecutors of framing the case around alleged artificial intelligence and voice manipulation, saying prosecutors had distorted the defense’s position without rebutting it.
The defense further claimed that the National Forensic Service returned an inconclusive result on the voice and AI manipulation issue, yet that part was left out when charges were filed, which it called a clear prosecutorial error.
Prosecutors pushed back, saying the arrest warrant and the indictment were written by different authors, so their contents do not necessarily have to match, and dismissing the defense’s point as not worth raising when that distinction was already known.
The report did not say whether the court ruled on the new bail application at the hearing, so Kim’s detention status was not shown to have changed.
The case stems from broadcasts Kim is accused of making between March and December 2025, in which he allegedly claimed that Kim Soo-hyun had dated the late Kim Sae-ron since she was a minor, for about six years, and that debt-repayment pressure from Kim Soo-hyun’s side contributed to her death. Those claims are the prosecution’s allegations, not findings from a final court judgment in the report.
Kim previously appeared in person at the second preparatory hearing and a bail hearing on October 15. At that hearing, he said he had been demonized by the media while in detention, expressed confidence in a clear acquittal, and said he had no reason to flee.
With a fresh bail request now before the court and the prosecution disputing its premise, the next development to watch is whether the court grants bail or keeps Kim in detention as the trial proceeds.
