Prosecutors demand 15 years for ex-president Park for taking bribes

By Kim Hyun-bin

Prosecutors demanded the Seoul Central District Court to sentence former President Park Geun-hye to 15 years in prison and fine her eight billion won, Thursday. The imprisonment term breaks down into 12 years for taking kickbacks from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and three years for election interference.

Park is accused of taking bribes of 3.5 billion won from NIS chiefs while serving in the nation's top office.

President Park failed to appear at the final hearing of her trial, this time on charges of accepting bribes from the NIS and illegally meddling in the nominations of lawmakers for the former Saenuri Party -- now the Liberty Korea Party.

The former president started refusing to attend all hearings beginning October 16 to protest her extended detention claiming the case against her was political revenge by the liberal Moon Jae-in government.

Three former spy agency chiefs -- Nam Jae-joon, Lee Byung-ki and Lee Byong-ho -- allegedly gave her the money from the agency's off-book funds from May 2013 to September 2016.

Nam headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2013 to 2014. He is suspected of giving 600 million won to the ex-president.

Lee Byung-ki and Lee Byong-ho are accused of handing over regular payments to Park.

Most of the witnesses who were called to the stand testified that there were monetary payments from the NIS.

The money was handed to three of Park's closest aides Lee Jae-man, Ahn Bong-geun and Jeong Ho-seong, who were each sentenced to five years in prison in May for delivering 50 to 200 million won every month from the NIS to Park.

Park is also accused of creating a “loyalist list” ahead of the 2016 general election and devising a campaign strategy to give advantages to Saenuri Party members who were loyal to her.

Prosecutors believe the former president used some of the off book funds for the campaign.

She was ousted after the Constitutional Court upheld an impeachment ruling March 10, last year.

In April, Park was sentenced to 24 years imprisonment and fined 18 billion won ($16.8 million) after being found guilty of abuse of power and extorting money from businesses.

The court convicted Park on 16 out of 18 charges including bribery, abuse of power, and soliciting more than 23 billion won in bribes from Samsung, Lotte and SK Group to fund the Mir and K-Sports foundations run by her close confidant Choi Soon-sil.

The ex-president denied the charges that also included sharing state secrets with Choi, who held no official position in her administration.

Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 18 billion won as well as having 7.29 billion won in assets confiscated in February. Choi was found guilty of illegal manipulation of government affairs for her personal interests.