The current case against Mother Han is portrayed as part of the current Lee administration’s vendetta to destroy the former governing party and its perceived supporters
Extracts from a report by Dr. Michael Balcomb, Continental Director of FFWPU Europe and the Middle East, given at an international prayer meeting for members on Zoom, on December 3rd, 2025. It is Dr. Balcomb’s personal report, not an official Family Federation document, and has no legal significance.
I think you probably want to hear from me a little bit about the situation in Korea with True Mother. […] I want to emphasize that this is my personal report. […]
I’m going to be as brief and factual as I can. There are four defendants in this case: True Mother, Jeong Won-ju (정원주), Yoon Yeong-ho (윤영호), the former president of our international headquarters, and his wife, Lee Shin-ae (이신애).
Mother was represented by two major law firms, 15 attorneys, a pretty big team. The prosecutor has one special prosecutor and three assistants. […]
In any courtroom, the defendants identify themselves, and the court advises them of their rights. One such right is to remain silent, and the other is to have or hope for a jury trial, which they all decline.
Then, again, entirely typical – the prosecution lays out the overview of its charges. And the prosecutor wants to paint Mother as a criminal mastermind in a network of political intrigue and financial misconduct.
These charges, whether they have any basis in fact or not, are intended to prove that case. And there are six of them.
- The first one is illegal or improper donations to a member of Congress.
- Second, further contributions to many political figures, all of them in the party of the deposed president Yoon Suk-yeol (윤석열). It’s important to note that because the current government is on a vendetta to destroy the former administration, and as you know, President Yoon is actually in the same detention center as True Mother.
- And third, that also there were gifts to the former first lady intended to win favor. A few months ago, this was the headline story. Now it’s just one among many.
- Four, there’s been destruction of evidence, specifically accounting records.
- Five, that payments to foreign politicians were made improperly, particularly in Senegal. Mind you, you remember that True Mother awarded the Sunhak Peace Prize to Macky Sall.
- And finally, that there’s a culture of embezzlement in the Family Federation itself.
So those are the charges. None of them, of course, is dressed up as religious or spiritual things. The prosecutors’ goal is to paint this as the way everyone else behaves.
And in addition, two of the defendants were separately accused of personal misuse of money.
But the main point they want to make – and this is their final argument – is that these other people had roles, but Mother is the spider at the center of the web, the supreme authority. So that’s the kind of picture they want to paint of our True Mother.
And why? Well, they have to explain what they think are their motivations, which are 1) to gain influence in the national assembly, and 2) to gain influence with the President. And they said they have phone calls and texts as evidence of this.
And then the prosecutor added an entirely gratuitous remark, which was picked up by the media: “Where did all this money come from? It came from members using their housing funds.”
That’s something particular to Korea. But an equivalent in Europe would be that the members took out loans against their houses and used that money–money they really didn’t have.
And then it was the turn for the defense to give an overall response. Mother‘s team presented a very different view of the case.
- First of all, this doctrine or allegation that Mother is the mastermind who controls everything is neither factual nor an official teaching. And it’s unrealistic.
- Secondly, despite what they say, neither Father nor Mother ever advocated theocracy or religious rule of a nation.
And she’s never claimed that political leaders must obey her. What she has said is that politics and religion must become one. But this refers to cooperating rather than one dominating the other.
So the defense’s premise or main argument is, “Look, this whole case is misguided. You are suggesting that this defendant, True Mother, has some overt, illegal political motivation, but she doesn’t. She’s not interested in any of those things. And finally, that if anything did take improper place, it was the effort or the result of Dr. Yoon Yeong-ho‘s own actions.”
And then, there was a little more detail on the particular points. Basically, saying that these are not criminal acts at all.
And then the court gets to respond. After the prosecution makes its case – a general overview – and the defense makes its case, then the court has a few interesting comments.
They definitely want to be efficient and as quick as they can. There are about 12 witnesses who are going to be called. It was suggested having they come into groups of three or four.
And the first stage will be to examine any previous written statements and authenticate any documents that are presented. Then in round two, there’ll be questioning and cross-examination.
To Mother‘s team, they asked, “You must specify exactly the allegations that you dispute. It’s not enough to give a general response. You need to be specific, and you need to indicate whether you are disputing the electronic evidence or whether you admit that these contents are authentic.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean admitting the interpretation that’s put on them but agreeing on whether these are factual things. Otherwise, a lot of time will be wasted.
To the prosecution side, the court wondered about this charge of foreign political contributions, “Are they legal in those countries? And if they are, can we even think of applying our own law extraterritorially, in other words, in other countries?”
And then there was some discussion about this term that the prosecution is relying on, painting True Mother as the one at the center of everything.
Generally, I can say that […] there was a lot of interest. Actually, there were a lot of people queued up to be in the hearing. But that court had only 30 public seats. So, the court kindly provided an overflow room with a video link – in fact, they might have provided two.
There was a lot of press there, domestic press, foreign correspondents – several from Japan. And as you all know, it was immediately reported in the Korean press.
Court officers required discipline and stopped things that weren’t allowed. The proceedings were orderly and restrained.
Perhaps the most important thing for us is that Mother was asked if she wanted to make a statement. And she did want to make a statement […].
I must emphasize that this is an unofficial translation, and it might actually be taken from notes, but I’m going to read it to you.
“Even after passing the age of 80, I have lived with the dream of attending the Creator, our Heavenly Parent, here on earth. Therefore, in April 2025, since the Creator’s dream according to the principles of creation was that he wished to live on earth with his True Parents embracing his children. Knowing this, I devoted my entire life of 80 years to fulfilling that dream.
And I made a firm resolution that I must build a palace where the Creator could dwell.” – That, of course, is the Cheonwon Temple – “And so I invested myself completely in that mission.
I have no interest in the politics of this nation. My entire life, instead, I have educated people while praying for world peace, for one human family, and for all people who attend our Heavenly Parent to become true families, receive Heavenly Parent’s love, and ultimately go to heaven.
For this reason, political leaders, religious leaders, and scholars around the world know me as the Mother of Peace, as Holy Mother Han.
Regarding this case as well, since they have observed me for a long time, it is true that they are deeply concerned about the current situation.
Many high-level figures sincerely hope that this trial will be conducted according to proper democratic principles.
And finally, I am not the kind of person that the special prosecutor describes.
I have absolutely no fear before heaven. Rather, I love heaven.
Because my lifelong wish has been to realize Heavenly Parent’s dream on earth, I ask you that if given the opportunity in the midst of this unfortunate incident, you come to Gapyeong and see for yourselves.
Please come to Gapyong and see what I have done.”
[…] But the next day, President Lee Jae-myung – out of nowhere, almost –announced a plan to request the dissolution of religious groups.
We were not named. And we’re not the only ones that are determined to be not for the public benefit, by which he actually means speaking out against the government.
Another pastor who’s in prison is Busan Pastor Son Hyun-bo. His son Chance points out, “It’s the prophetic duty of the church to rebuke evil and wrongdoing in public office.”
If churches cannot do that, then they have no religious freedom worth mentioning.
But, interestingly, this came up the very next day.
And it was the same when Mother spoke two months ago when she was being questioned, because it’s a clear challenge that people should honor God and not the government of the day first.
So what about bail? That’s a question in everyone’s mind.
And I think Karen [the moderator of the above-mentioned Zoom event] said, “Maybe a decision will be made on the 4th or 5th December.”
Well, it might. The latest application was made on 1st December. But typically, that decision can take many days or even weeks.
And we don’t know how long it will take. We don’t know what pressures there might be to deny bail.
And until then, True Mother must remain in the detention center, the Kuchiso (구치소), as it is called in Korea.
And then finally, you might ask, “How long can all this take?”
I don’t have an answer to that, but just consider a few facts. This case will have to present a lot of evidence, and that evidence will have to be weighed and challenged. There are 12 witnesses, and on the first afternoon, one witness appeared by video, and it’s not even clear if that witness is finished.
Also, you might think, “Surely they’re meeting every day.”
No, there’s only one hearing a week on average, maybe five a month. So it could take many weeks to work through these witnesses at that rate.
And the holidays are coming up, so frankly, a lot of prayer is still needed that this does not go on and on and on.
Of course, I wish I could give you more encouraging news. And I think it is true, as several people said, […] that out of this challenge is going to come something great.
But at the same time, I think we also need to be realistic and manage our expectations. If the reality is that we don’t expect a decision on bail for a couple of weeks, then it would be a mistake to get upset if it doesn’t happen the next day.
It would be important to have a sense of how the timing will be. I think it’s very important to keep our devotion and dedication. […] It’s easy to think, “What I do doesn’t matter. Everything that I’ve offered, every fast, every prayer, every effort made in Korea, doesn’t seem to be working.”
But we don’t know that. It’s much too early to tell how God will use our devotion, how God will use this incredible offering that True Mother is making.
I want to encourage us all to keep the faith, as it were, to keep making the same commitments and investments. They do make a difference.
And I know that they’re incredibly encouraging to True Mother.
You can imagine her biggest worry – one of them – is that we will, in fact, lose faith and power and stop working.
So any testimony that we can give to the contrary – and we’re going to be in Korea next week – to say, “No, Mother, actually, we’re working harder than ever before, and good things are happening!”
This is probably the very best way that we can support True Mother right now.