Trial of Park Geun-hye to start within weeks after she was formally indicted on multiple charges of corruption

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

South Korean prosecutors have formally charged Park Geun-hye over high-profile corruption allegations that could potentially send the former president to jail for life.

The indictment covers multiple charges, including abuse of power, extortion, bribery and leaking state secrets.

It is the latest in a series of humiliations for Park, who was driven from office by huge peaceful protests. She was impeached late last year, officially stripped of power in March and has been in a detention facility near Seoul since being arrested last month on allegations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money from businesses, take bribes and commit other wrongdoing.

Park will remain in the detention centre and taken to a Seoul court for her trial. It is expected to start within weeks and could take up to six months. It is unclear if the trial will be under way before 9 May when a special election will be held to determine her successor.

Prosecutors also indicted Shin Dong-bin, the chairman of Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest business conglomerate, on a charge of offering a bribe of 7 bn won ($6m) to Park and her confidante, Choi Soon-sil, in exchange for a lucrative government licence to open a new duty free shop.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Choi Soon-sil appears for the first day of her trial at court in Seoul. Photograph: AP

Park, 65, was elected as South Korea’s first female president in late 2012. The country will now watch as she is forced to stand in court handcuffed, bound with rope and possibly dressed in prison garb.

If she is convicted, her bribery charge carries the biggest punishment, ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.



While deeply unpopular among many South Koreans, Park still has supporters, and some conservative politicians and media are already demanding that authorities pardon her if she is convicted.

Park Geun-hye impeachment: what next for South Korea? Read more

South Korea pardoned two of its convicted former leaders in the late 1990s in a bid for national reconciliation amid a financial crisis, and its court had until recently shown leniency toward corrupt business tycoons because of worries about hurting the economy.

Though surveys have shown a majority of South Koreans backing Park’s removal from office and arrest, some of her last remaining ultra-conservative supporters still stage rallies in downtown Seoul every weekend.

Such rallies could pressure whoever becomes her successor. The new leader will also face increasing nuclear threats from North Korea and diverse economic woes.

Park’s scandal triggered huge political turmoil in South Korea, with millions taking to the streets to call for her to go for months before her supporters launched their own protests. Dozens of high-level figures including Choi, top administration officials and Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong have already been indicted and await separate criminal trials.

Park and Choi allegedly conspired with one of Park’s top presidential advisers to pressure 18 business groups, including Samsung, to donate 77.4 bn won for the launch of two non-profit foundations controlled by Choi. Prosecutors also accuse the pair of taking bribes from Samsung and Lotte and blacklisting artists critical of Park’s government to deny them state support.

Park has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that she only got help from Choi to edit some presidential speeches and on public relations.

Park is the daughter of the late dictator Park Chung-hee, one of the most divisive figures in South Korean history. Some recall him as an abuser of human rights on an enormous scale while others credit him with spearheading a rapid economic rise in the 1960-70s. Critics say Park’s 2012 election would not have happened without conservatives’ nostalgia for her father.

Park Chung-hee’s iron-fisted 18-year rule ended when he was gunned down by his spy chief in 1979. Five years earlier his wife was killed in an assassination attempt against him.

Park Geun-hye once described Choi, 60, as someone who helped her when she had difficulties in the past, an apparent reference to her parents’ deaths.