By Anna Kim
Staff Writer
Former South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was arrested last month, 21 days after she had been impeached by the Constitutional Court.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant at 3:03 a.m. following Park’s marathon warrant-request hearing, which lasted nearly nine hours---the longest in South Korean history for such a hearing.
Prosecutors suspected that Park colluded with her longtime friend Choi Soon-Sil to poach bribes from over fifty South Korean conglomerates including Samsung for Choi-controlled K-Sports and Mir Foundations, having personally asking the large businesses for donations.
Prosecutors also made an allegation of Park having a hand in the creation of a blacklist of artists blasting government affairs. Prosecutors insisted that Park should be arrested because the key allegations against her are grave and to hedge the risk of Park fleeing or destroying evidence.
Park had been immune from criminal prosecution while in office, and she had repeatedly refused to be questioned by special prosecutors. This wrongly-chosen defense brought her to the edge of fall.
The Seoul Central District Court granted prosecutors’ request to arrest her.
“Major charges have been substantiated and concerns over the destruction of evidence still prevail,” said presiding Judge Kang Bu-Young. “Hereupon, the court perceives the need, necessity, and reasonableness of the suspect’s arrest.”
If Park is found guilty of the 13 multiple charges, which is the largest number of charges faced by a former president, including bribery, abuse of power, extortion, and the leaking of state secrets, she can face a minimum of 10 years in prison and possibly up to 45 years.
With her arrest, Park becomes the third former president in South Korean history to face the possibility of prison time. Former presidents Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo were sentenced to life in prison and a 17-year prison term, respectively, in 1996 on charges of treason and bribery. They were both pardoned after short jail stints in 1997 on a special presidential amnesty.
The Seoul Central District Court granted prosecutors’ request to arrest her.
Prosecutors suspected that Park colluded with her longtime friend Choi Soon-Sil to poach bribes from over fifty South Korean conglomerates.
Mrs. Park’s private house in Samsung Dong.
