Prosecution, defiant ex-leader gear up for fierce court battle

Published : Mar 30, 2017 - 09:28 Updated : Mar 30, 2017 - 10:25

A grueling legal battle is expected to unfold at a court review on Thursday of an arrest warrant for ousted leader Park Geun-hye, who has vowed to fight all charges that led to her downfall earlier this month.

Park plans to attend the hearing at the Seoul Central District Court starting at 10:30 a.m.

The prosecution requested the arrest warrant on Monday on multiple charges, including bribery, coercion, abuse of power and the leak of state secrets presumably in 13 cases implicating her close friend and scores of aides. She has denied any wrongdoing.

This photo, taken on March 29, 2017, shows a triangle of yellow tape laid down at the entrance of the Seoul Central District Court in the capital, which will serve as a place marker for former President Park Geun-hye to stand at when she attends a hearing to determine whether or not to approve an arrest warrant for her a day later. Park, dismissed as president on March 10, faces an investigation on 13 counts of corruption allegations that range from bribery to abuse of power. (Yonhap)

Both sides are gearing up for marathon arguments given the complexity of the cases, the number of those involved and her stubborn defiance, according to observers.

Park stayed at the prosecution office for 21 hours during her first interrogation from Tuesday to early Wednesday last week.

The focus of the court arguments is likely on bribery suspicions. Park is suspected of colluding with her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil in forcing dozens of local conglomerates to "donate" a total of 77.4 billion won ($70 million) to two dubious foundations -- Mir and K-Sports -- allegedly controlled by Choi.

Samsung, among others, is accused of giving or promising some 43.4 billion won to Choi, and in effect to Park, as kickbacks in return for business favors. Of the total, 20.4 billion won went to the two foundations.

If convicted of the charges, Park can be sentenced to 10 years or more in prison.

Park is also accused of being involved in blacklisting cultural figures deemed critical of her policies and prohibiting government agencies from providing financial support to them. Her former close aides were arrested for their roles in creating and managing a list of more than 9,000 artists, writers, filmmakers and entertainment figures.

Prosecutors suspect that the former president abused her power by pressuring her aides to sack culture ministry officials who resisted discriminatory measures against those on the blacklist.

In other cases of abuse of power and coercion, she is suspected of exerting undue influence on private companies' personnel management and hectoring them to sign contracts with Choi's firms, according to prosecutors.

The country's food and entertainment conglomerate CJ, for one, was told to dismiss its vice chief executive for movies and TV content apparently supportive of liberal politicians, they said.

South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. was also pressured to sign a 1.1 billion won supply contract with a mid-sized company belonging to one of Choi's associates and another 7.1 billion won advertising deal with an agency owned by Choi, prosecutors said.

Telecoms firm KT Corp. was allegedly bullied to hire executives close to Choi and to award a 6.8 billion won advertising deal to her agency.

Steelmaker POSCO was compelled to create a fencing team and to sign yet another contract with one of Choi's companies, though that contract was not realized in the end.

Prosecutors are looking into whether the business groups were seeking business favors in return. The conglomerates, however, have been claiming that the president and her aides twisted their arms to make such decisions favorable to Choi.

Prosecutors also said Park allegedly violated the law on managing government secrets by leaking them to Choi.

There have been suspicions that Choi was involved in making key state decisions, despite having no policy experience. Park's longtime aide Jeong Ho-seong is currently standing trial and in custody for his alleged role in the process.

After reviewing arguments from the prosecution and Park, the Seoul court will make a decision around midnight or later.

If the court issues the writ, Park will be the country's third former president to be arrested on criminal charges following Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan.

She moved out from the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae earlier this month after the Constitutional Court removed her from office in a historic ruling on March 10. (Yonhap)