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| Ahn Bong-geun, left, and Lee Jae-man enter the courtroom to review the validity of the warrants at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Jung Min-ho
The prosecution has requested arrest warrants for two former presidential secretaries over allegations they received bribes from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) while Park Geun-hye was president.
Ahn Bong-geun and Lee Jae-man ― known as Park's closest aides ― attended a court hearing Thursday to review the validity of the warrants. The decision is expected to come out early Friday morning.
The prosecution is detaining them for allegedly taking 1 billion won ($900,000) from the spy agency every year between 2013 and 2016 while working at Cheong Wa Dae.
They admitted to receiving money but refused to reveal the details.
The prosecution is expected to expand the investigation to Park, who already faces many charges including bribery and abuse of power. Lee told the prosecution he accepted money from the NIS whenever Park ordered him to do so.
The presidential office is suspected of giving some of the money to a pollster run by a former Cheong Wa Dae official. The firm conducted surveys ahead of the 2016 general election.
Jeong Ho-seong, the former presidential secretary who was named as part of a powerful trio along with Ahn and Lee while Park was in office, admitted he was also a beneficiary of the NIS' black budget.
But the three are suspected of spending some of the 4 billion won also for personal use. The prosecution is looking into allegations Ahn and Lee used the bribes to buy an apartment in the affluent southern district of Seoul.
Three other former presidential aides ― Cho Yoon-sun, Hyun Ki-hwan and Shin Dong-chul ― are also accused of receiving NIS money. While Cho and Hyun allegedly each pocketed 5 million won a month for one year, Shin allegedly received 3 million won every month for about two years.
All this was revealed after Lee Hun-soo, a former senior NIS official, confessed to giving money to the suspects while being questioned over his role in the NIS' political interference under the two previous right-wing governments.
The prosecution is soon expected to summon three former NIS chiefs ― Nam Jae-joon, Lee Byeong-ho and Lee Byung-kee ― for questioning.
The NIS is also suspected of conspiring with executives of public broadcaster MBC to remove journalists and celebrities who were critical of then-President Lee Myung-bak. Also, the agency is accused of running a secret smear campaign against Moon Jae-in to help Park Geun-hye in the 2012 presidential election.
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