Business Standard

Ousted S. Korean President again questioned in jail

Image

IANS Seoul

South Korean prosecutors on Saturday grilled ousted President Park Geun-hye at a detention centre again over corruption allegations that removed her from office last month.

Prosecutors visited the centre in Uiwang, where Park has been detained following the Constitutional Court's approval of her impeachment on March 10, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Park is known to have denied any wrongdoing during the first session in prison that lasted for nearly 11 hours on Tuesday. The second probe occurred two days later.

Park was named an accomplice in her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil's bribery allegations involving South Korea's largest business group Samsung.

 

She is also suspected of colluding with Choi in pressing local conglomerates into donating tens of billions of won to two non-profit foundations allegedly controlled by Choi.

Lawyer Yoo Yeong-ha accompanied her during the inquiry Saturday, as he did previously.

On Friday, a Seoul court has approved prosecutors' request to extend Park's detention until April 19 for further questioning.

The Justice Ministry transferred Choi, who was held at the same location as Park, to another detention house earlier following the prosecution's request.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are considering seeking an arrest warrant against Woo Byung-woo, Park's former senior secretary for civil affairs, according to sources.

He is one of the last figures embroiled in the scandal that has avoided detention so far, while a number of Park's former aides were arrested and are standing trial.

Woo was interrogated on Thursday for about 17 hours as a suspect.

A team of special prosecutors which earlier investigated the scandal asked a court to issue a warrant to arrest Woo, but the request was denied.

--IANS

ksk/vm

Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Apr 08 2017 | 2:16 PM IST

Explore News