Former President Lee Myung-bak detained following arrest on corruption charges

2018-03-23 16

We start with the arrest of ex-President Lee Myung-bak on corruption charges.
He was taken from his home in southern Seoul late last night to a detention center in the east of the capital.
Let's connect to our Cha Sang-mi, standing by outside the detention center, to tell us more about the situation after the court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for the ex-leader.
Sang-mi, so ex-president Lee Myung-bak has spent his first night behind bars...


That's right, Se-min.
The former president is now locked up at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center behind me in Songpa-gu District, southeastern Seoul.
He was brought here just past midnight, after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant against him less than an hour earlier.
The former president posted a photograph of a hand-written statement on his Facebook before leaving his home, saying (quote) "I don't blame others. Everything is my fault and I feel remorse."
Lee's legal team expressed regret over the decision to arrest the former president, although they said they respected the court's decision.
They added that "this is the start of a long fight", signaling their plan to fight each of the allegations in court.
Normally suspects processed by the Seoul Central District Court are detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Gyeonggi-do Province, but the court decided to hold Lee at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center, considering another former president, Park Geun-hye, is being held at the Seoul Detention Center.
Lee is to be kept in solitary confinement on the twelfth floor in a cell that's just ten square meters big.
That sounds small, but it's almost double the size of an average solitary cell and includes a TV set and separate shower facilities.

Sang-mi, Lee joins a long list of ex-Korean presidents who have landed themselves in jail due to their corrupt dealings....

Right, Se-min, it's been about a year since Lee's successor,.. Park Geun-hye was arrested on March 31st 2017 on serious corruption charges, including bribery and abuse of power.
Her trial is coming to a close and prosecutors are demanding she serve 30 years in jail
With his arrest, Lee becomes the fourth living former Korean president to have been detained over past corrupt practices.
The 76-year-old faces at least 14 charges, the most serious of which is receiving ten million U.S. dollars in bribes from businesses and agencies.
Other charges include embezzlement, tax evasion, and a violation of election law.
This also marks the first time in 23 years that two ex-presidents are detained at the same time.
Ex-presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were jailed for mutiny and corruption in 1995, but were released two years later through a presidential pardon.
Back to you, Se-min.