Former President Lee Myung-bak has been detained on corruption charges after a Seoul court issued an arrest warrant late Thursday night.
Lee was taken from his home in southern Seoul to a detention center in the east of the capital.
Our Cha Sang-mi was outside the detention center, to tell us more about the situation.
The former president arrived at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center in Songpa-gu District, southeastern Seoul in the early hours of Friday morning, less than an hour after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
Before leaving his home, the former president posted a photograph of a hand-written statement on his Facebook page, saying (quote) "I don't blame others. Everything is my fault and I feel remorse."
Lee's legal team expressed regret over the decision and said that "this is the start of a long fight", signaling their plan to challenge each of the allegations in court.
As for the interrogation, the prosecutors this morning said there will be no questioning today, considering Lee's old age and the busy schedule of his first day of detention, which includes a medical examination,... but said they will be visiting the detention center for questioning in the near future.
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 now in solitary confinement on the top floor of the detention center... 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.”
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 Lee Myung-bak's arrest, he becomes the fourth living former Korean president to have been detained over allegations of past corruption.
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.
Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News.
