Prosecutors to indict ex-President Lee over corruption charges

Prosecutors are expected to indict former President Lee Myung-bak on Monday on a string of corruption charges, including taking millions of dollars in bribes, making him South Korea's fourth former leader to face trial.

Lee, president from 2008-2013, has been in pretrial detention since his arrest last month on charges of bribery, abuse of power, embezzlement and other irregularities. He's the fourth former president to be arrested and put on trial after former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo and Park Geun-hye.

The indictment comes days after Park was sentenced to 24 years in prison for corruption Friday.

Prosecutors are expected to indict Lee with about 14 counts of corruption.

He has been accused of taking bribes totaling about 11 billion won (US$10 million), including some 700 million won from the state intelligence service and $5.85 million in lawsuit expenses Samsung Electronics paid on behalf of a car parts firm Lee is suspected of owning.

Lee also faces suspicions of embezzling about 35 billion won ($32 million) from the car parts firm, DAS, and evading taxes. Other charges include abuse of power, breach of trust, illegally stashing presidential documents and a violation of the election law.

Prosecutors are looking into other suspicions and plan to press additional charges against him as soon as they are confirmed. They also plan to take steps to freeze Lee's personal assets to prevent him from disposing of assets gained from corruption.

Lee has denied most of the charges against him. (Yonhap)