Park Geun-hye denies all charges in first hearing

Former friends at trial: Former President Park Geun-hye, left, and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil wait for the first hearing of a monumental corruption trial to begin, in a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Park and Choi face charges of colluding in accepting or receiving funds worth 59.2 billion won from conglomerates including Samsung. /Yonhap

Former president attends trial along with Choi Soon-sil

By Lee Kyung-min

Former President Park Geun-hye attended her first court hearing over the corruption scandal that removed her from office and denied all charges against her, Tuesday.

This is the first time in 53 days that she has made a public appearance since she was arrested, March 31.

Handcuffed and with her trademark hairstyle, Park arrived at the Seoul Central District Court before entering the courtroom at 10 a.m.

Park and her confidant of 40 years Choi Soon-sil saw each other for the first time in eight months since Choi left for Germany last September after the corruption scandal broke out.

Park entered the courtroom first and sat looking straight ahead not turning her head even the slightest, while Choi entered the courtroom and sat two seats away from her, next to her attorney Lee Kyung-jae.

When asked by presiding Judge Kim Se-yun, on her current occupation, Park said, “I don’t have an occupation.”

When offered a chance to speak, Choi whimpered and said, “I am a sinner for having Park whom I’ve been close to for more than 40 years stand trial.”

“I do not believe Park was involved in any criminal activities, bribery or otherwise. I think the prosecution is pushing this too far, and I wish the court would clear her of the suspected wrongdoings thereby letting her remain as the president who devoted her life to the country.”

Choi blamed her former associate Park Won-oh, a former head of the Korea Equestrian Federation, over allegations that Samsung offered financial support for her daughter, the former dressage competitor Chung Yoo-ra.

“My daughter already had her own horse when she was in Germany. Then Park asked Samsung for support and Samsung bought a horse and a car. I can take responsibility for that, but not the charges by the prosecution that the support for my daughter was in return for the government-backed merger of Samsung’s two units,” she said.

Park’s defense attorney Yoo Young-ha said the charges against her lacked foundation and largely relied on imagination, inference and media reports.

“Most of the evidence submitted by the prosecution is news articles. The prosecution determined news reports valid as evidence in a criminal case,” he said.

Yoo said the prosecution failed to specify when, where and how Park and Choi conspired to extort large amounts of funds from conglomerates.

Park never ordered anyone to set up two dubious foundations controlled by Choi, Yoo said, adding that she had no motive to set them up as she wouldn’t have been able to spend the money for herself without presidential secretaries knowing.

Yoo stressed the premise under which the prosecution is working was simply wrong.

“The prosecution says the business groups coughed up the money out of fear the government would launch group-wide audits or take other punitive action against them, but there are no specifics on how or when Park did this.”

Yoo said Park was never involved in creating and managing a blacklist of artists, through which liberal, dissenting artists were denied state support. Park also denied having a senior former culture ministry official No Tae-kang dismissed for showing reluctance to follow her orders.

“Park was never briefed on matters involving the list, nor did she give orders to exclude such artists from state support,” he added. “Even if she did, holding Park responsible for dismissing a ministry official, which was an administrative decision, is the equivalent to holding the mother of a murderer responsible for her son’s crime,” he said.

Meanwhile, the prosecution, in response, said it had written and testimonial evidence in volumes that are more than enough to corroborate its allegations, dismissing Yoo’s claim.

The court is expected to hold hearings two or three times a week to deliver a ruling before Oct. 16.

The court will combine the case of Park and Choi to save both the court and defendants time. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.