Prosecutors investigating allegations of match fixing in baseball said Saturday that a second active professional baseball pitcher partially admitted, during questioning, his involvement in match fixing.
Park Hyun-jun, a right-hander for the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), was grilled by prosecutors in Daegu, a metropolitan city some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for eight hours on Friday. The 25-year-old player is under suspicion of accepting bribes in return for trying to fix baseball games at least twice last year, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said they plan to indict him after further questioning as he admitted to a considerably large part of the charges against him.
Park had claimed innocence since his name first surfaced in the fast-spreading baseball fixing rumors last month. He led the Twins with 13 wins in 2011, accounting for nearly a quarter of the team’s victories.
The government recently announced it will take a “zero-tolerance” approach against match fixing and toughened penalties for offending players, coaches and teams.
The ongoing investigation has dealt a major blow to the KBO, which has enjoyed an unprecedented wave of popularity in recent seasons. The 2012 season starts on April 7.
(Yonhap News)
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