Park to be questioned Tuesday in prison

By Jung Min-ho

Former President Park Geun-hye will be questioned Tuesday at the Seoul Detention Center as the prosecution carries on its investigation into the major corruption scandal involving her close friend Choi Soon-sil.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Sunday that prosecutors will question her at the detention facility in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, following the Seoul Central District Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for her Friday on 13 charges.

“At first, we asked her to come to the prosecutors’ office Monday for questioning, which her lawyers rejected because of her psychological state and for security reasons,” an official from the team dealing with the case said. “So we have decided to do it at the detention center on Tuesday.”

With less than 20 days to collect evidence and testimony before the warrant expires April 19, prosecutors are apparently accelerating the investigation. This will be her second questioning after a first one, March 21, before her detention.

Both or one of the two prosecutors who previously interrogated her ― Han Woong-jae and Lee Won-seok ― are expected to question her again.

The decision means that she does not have to appear with her hands handcuffed in front of cameras as other suspects have done.

Park is not the first former head of state to be questioned at the detention center; in 1995, two of her predecessors ― Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo ― were also interrogated there.

With all the key suspects in the scandal pinning responsibility on each other, prosecutors may call some of them in for joint-questioning.

Park, who is charged with 13 crimes, including bribery, abuse of authority and the passing of confidential state information to an unauthorized person ― Choi, repeatedly claimed that she didn’t do anything illegal or order her aides to do so in order to help Choi.

On the other hand, former presidential secretaries who have been indicted for their roles in the scandal, including An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong, insisted that they just carried out her orders.

For prosecutors, one of the most important tasks is to prove the bribery charge against Park and Choi, in which they allegedly colluded to take money from major companies, including Samsung, in return for business favors.

Prosecutors have already confirmed that the companies gave money to the Mir and K-Sports foundations controlled by Choi, but they still need to prove that Choi and Park made “deals” with the firms and shared the profits in order to indict everyone involved on bribery charges.

Depending on how Park and Choi collected the money from the companies, the prosecution will indict the two on charges of either abuse of power or bribery, which is a more serious crime that could put them in prison for life.

After indicting Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on charges of giving bribes to Park and Choi, the prosecution is now looking to question the leaders of other major companies, including SK, CJ and Lotte.

Prosecutors are also looking into former senior presidential secretary Woo Byung-woo, who is suspected of abuse of power and dereliction of duty among other allegations.