Prosecutor Pushes for Indictment of South Korean President in Samsung Scandal -
By CHOE SANG-HUNMARCH 6, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — A special prosecutor in South Korea asked state prosecutors on Monday to indict President Park Geun-hye on bribery charges, saying
that Ms. Park and her secretive confidante conspired to take $38 million in bribes from Samsung, one of the world’s largest technology companies.
On Monday, Ms. Park’s lawyer, Yu Young-ha, rejected the special prosecutor’s findings, saying his investigation was “politically biased”
and “lacking in fairness.” He called the bribery allegation “an absurd fiction.”
But on Monday, Mr. Park, the special prosecutor, who is not related to Ms. Park, said his team found enough evidence
that Ms. Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, conspired to collect bribes from Samsung.
“Future court proceedings will reveal the truth.”
On Monday, Mr. Park, the special prosecutor, said that the president should also face a criminal charge of abusing official power, saying she conspired with aides to blacklist thousands of artists, writers
and movie directors deemed unfriendly to her government and exclude them from government-funded support programs.
Mr. Lee offered the bribes in return for political favors from Ms. Park, most notably government support for a merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015
that helped him inherit corporate control of the Samsung conglomerate from his incapacitated father, Lee Kun-hee, the prosecutor said.
On Monday, the special prosecutor said Ms. Park and Ms. Choi had 573 phone conversations between April
and October last year using cellphones issued under borrowed names.