Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak gets in a car as he is transferred to a detention centre, at his residence in Seoul, South Korea March 23, 2018. Jung Yeon-je/Pool via Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country’s fourth leader to end up behind bars.

Lee was grilled by prosecutors earlier this month over nearly 20 charges that involve suspicions he took around 11 billion won ($10.28 million) unlawfully from a number of institutions and individuals He denies any wrongdoing.

A South Korean judge issued the arrest warrant late on Thursday, saying Lee could destroy evidence. The former president was driven to a detention center in Seoul soon after midnight.

Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation into the bribery allegations is politically motivated by prosecutors under the incumbent liberal administration.

Last year, Lee’s successor ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for Park and a Seoul court will deliver a verdict in early April. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country's fourth leader to end up behind bars.

Lee was grilled by prosecutors earlier this month over nearly 20 charges that involve suspicions he took around 11 billion won ($10.28 million) unlawfully from a number of institutions and individuals He denies any wrongdoing.

 A South Korean judge issued the arrest warrant late on Thursday, saying Lee could destroy evidence. The former president was driven to a detention center in Seoul soon after midnight.

 Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation into the bribery allegations is politically motivated by prosecutors under the incumbent liberal administration.

 Last year, Lee's successor ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for Park and a Seoul court will deliver a verdict in early April.

 

 (Reporting by Christine Kim and Jane Chung; Editing by Andrew Heavens) </s> South Korea's former president Lee Myung-bak arrives at the prosecutors office in Seoul, South Korea, March 14, 2018. Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
• Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was detained after being suspected of taking bribes when he was in office.
• Lee faces nearly 20 charges that allege he unlawfully accepted $10.28 million.
• Lee would be the fourth South Korean leader to end up behind bars.

South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country's fourth leader to end up behind bars.

Lee was grilled by prosecutors earlier this month over nearly 20 charges that involve suspicions he took around 11 billion won ($10.28 million) unlawfully from a number of institutions and individuals. He denies any wrongdoing.

A South Korean judge issued the arrest warrant late on Thursday, saying Lee could destroy evidence. The former president was driven to a detention center in Seoul soon after midnight.

Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation into the bribery allegations is politically motivated by prosecutors under the incumbent liberal administration.

Last year, Lee's successor ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for Park and a Seoul court will deliver a verdict in early April. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country's fourth leader to end up behind bars.

SEOUL: South Korean former president Lee Myung-bak was detained early on Friday on charges of taking bribes when he was in office, becoming the country's fourth leader to end up behind bars.

Lee was grilled by prosecutors earlier this month over nearly 20 charges that involve suspicions he took around 11 billion won (US$10.28 million) unlawfully from a number of institutions and individuals He denies any wrongdoing.

A South Korean judge issued the arrest warrant late on Thursday, saying Lee could destroy evidence. The former president was driven to a detention centre in Seoul soon after midnight.

Lee, in office from 2008 to 2013, says the investigation into the bribery allegations is politically motivated by prosecutors under the incumbent liberal administration.

Last year, Lee's successor ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted from office after an influence-peddling scandal and is standing trial on charges of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for Park and a Seoul court will deliver a verdict in early April. </s> South Korean authorities on Thursday arrested former President Lee Myung-bak after a court issued an arrest warrant over corruption.

Prosecutors have accused Lee of taking bribes from an intelligence agency and business groups amounting to a total of 11 billion won (€8.1 million, $10 million). Lee served as South Korea's president from 2008 to 2013.

Prosecutors have alleged that the Samsung Group bought a presidential pardon in 2009 for its chairman Lee Kun-hee, who had been convicted for tax evasion. However, the Samsung leader received a suspended sentence.

He also stands accused of tax evasion and other crimes, including using a private company to create illicit slush funds amounting to 35 billion won. The arrest warrant effectively allows authorities to detain him for up to 20 days before charging him.

Lee is the fourth South Korean president to be arrested. Last year, South Korea's Constitutional Court forced then-President Park Geun-Hye to step down from office following impeachment proceedings. Weeks later, she was arrested on corruption charges.

Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, former army generals who served as president, were jailed in the 1990s on corruption charges. Both were involved in the 1979 military coup and 1980 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Every evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> A court in South Korea on Friday sentenced former President Lee Myung-bak to 15 years in prison after finding him guilty on various charges of corruption, AP reported. The court also ordered him to pay 13 billion won (Rs 84.6 crore) as penalty. He has denied most charges and has one week to appeal.

Lee, a former businessman, was the president between 2008 and 2013. He was indicted on various charges in April, after being accused of accepting 11 billion won (Rs 71.6 crore now) in bribes between 2007 and 2012, including a bribe for a presidential pardon in 2009 for Samsung Group’s chairman convicted of tax evasion. Lee is also accused of embezzling 35 billion won between 1994 and 2006.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted him of bribery and embezzlement, among other charges. He had been held at a detention center in Seoul since his arrest in March. He had called the investigation “political revenge”.

All four living former presidents of South Korea have now been charged for or convicted of criminal offences. In April, the country’s first woman leader, Park Geun-hye, was convicted and sent to 24 years in prison for abuse of power, corruption and bribery. She was sentenced to nine more years in other convictions later. </s> Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, who held office from 2008 to 2013 and is now 77 years old, was arrested late Thursday night on corruption charges.

The allegations include bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power, breach of the public trust, illegally withholding presidential documents, tax evasion, and election law violations. The charges carry a combined sentence of up to 45 years in prison.

“Prosecutors escorted him from his grace-and-favor residence in Gangnam late Thursday night and transported him to a remand jail on the outskirts of Seoul,” Chosun Ilbo reported.

Lee has clearly been in serious jeopardy from the corruption investigation for some time, but his arrest occurred with surprising speed because prosecutors feared the “destruction of evidence.” Given that the charges against him include illegally retaining official documents, the authorities evidently felt it was important to take him into custody and secure whatever materials were still in his possession.

According to prosecutors, Lee accepted over $10 million in bribes from various sources, including a payoff from Samsung laundered through an American law firm, paid to assist an auto-parts company called DAS that is ostensibly owned by Lee’s older brother. Another charge against Lee accuses him of abusing government power to benefit DAS. A warehouse owned by the company is also said to be the repository for classified government documents that Lee should not possess.

Global electronics giant Samsung figures in a number of South Korean corruption cases, notably including the case against Park Geun-hye, Lee Myung-bak’s successor as president. The head of the Samsung Group, billionaire Jay Y. Lee, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on bribery charges in April 2017. Lee appealed the sentence, but it seems possible he could end up behind bars for even longer if prosecutors have their way.

In addition to being part of the seismic financial, cultural, and political calamity of the Samsung corruption case, Lee Myung-bak’s arrest is a demoralizing blow to conservatives in South Korea because he is portrayed as putting his own selfish interests above national security. In the most egregious example, Lee appears to have signed a secret deal with the United Arab Emirates that would actually oblige South Korean troops to fight on the UAE’s behalf. The quid pro quo was an $18.6 contract to construct a nuclear power plant in the UAE in 2009.

Another serious national-security allegation is that Lee diverted military cyber resources intended to protect against North Korean hackers and used them to manipulate public opinion in favor of Park Geun-hye during her ultimately successful bid to succeed him as president.

Lee has denied many of the charges against him, but not all. “Rather than blaming others, I feel that I am at fault for everything and I also feel a sense of guilt. I hope that my arrest will ease the pain suffered by those who worked with me as well as their families,” he wrote on Facebook after his arrest warrant was issued.

Lee’s office was considerably less humble and penitent; it released a statement rejecting all charges from the state prosecutors, vowed to “fight with full-fledged effort to get the truth out at court,” and said the former president’s arrest was part of “a state-led political scheme to kill Lee Myung-bak” that has been playing out “since the day the Moon Jae-in government assumed office.”

Lee himself has in the past speculated that current president Moon Jae-in is persecuting him in revenge for the death of an even earlier South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide in 2009 during a corruption investigation. Moon was President Roh’s chief of staff.

“Prosecutors are looking into whether to call in Lee’s wife, Kim Yoon-ok, for questioning about suspicions that she took close to 1 billion won in illicit money from the state intelligence agency and others,” Yonhap News adds. </s> Former South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Is Arrested On Graft Charges

Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been arrested over a host of corruption allegations, ranging from bribery to embezzlement and tax evasion. Live footage on local media showed Lee submitting to his arrest warrant at home late at night, getting into a black sedan flanked by two law enforcement officers.

"I feel that all is my fault," Lee said in a handwritten statement posted to Facebook shortly after the warrant was issued, "and I feel a sense of guilt."

That said, the 76-year-old conservative politician has denied the charges against him, with Lee rejecting the investigation as "political revenge" mounted by the current administration in office, headed by liberal President Moon Jae-in.

Lee, who led the country from 2008 to 2013, is just the latest high-profile South Korean politician to find himself embroiled in legal woes. His conservative successor, Park Geun-hye, saw her own presidency unravel last year under the weight of a massive graft scandal of her own. She, too, is currently in detention, arrested around this time last year on charges that could spell a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

This is not the first time South Korea has had two of its former leaders "behind bars at the same [time]," as South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports:

Lee, for his part, stands accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from a variety of individuals and organizations — including, according to The Associated Press, his own intelligence agency. Yonhap notes he is also alleged to have embezzled tens of millions more from a private company.

"Other charges include abuse of power, breach of trust, illegally stashing presidential documents and a violation of election law," Yonhap explains.

Chang Je-won, spokesperson for the Liberty Korea Party, the conservative opposition to Moon's government, was on hand at Lee's residence to watch the ex-president being taken away. And he released a statement expressing his party's regret at the development.

"Should living as a former president in this country be this difficult?" he said. "I hope former President Lee will be the last victim of a political revenge."

Prosecutors have 20 days to hold Lee at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center, while they decide whether to slap him with formal charges. </s> Lee Myung-bak is found guilty on charges including bribery and embezzlement and ordered to pay a fine of 13 billion won by the Seoul Central District Court

SEOUL, South Korea – Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was jailed for 15 years for corruption Friday, October 5, becoming the latest of the country's ex-leaders to be sent to prison.

The 76-year-old CEO-turned-president, who served from 2008 to 2013, was found guilty on charges including bribery and embezzlement and ordered to pay a fine of 13 billion won ($11.5 million) by the Seoul Central District Court.

"Bringing everything into consideration, heavy punishment for the accused is inevitable," said a judge during the trial that was live televised.

Lee was not in attendance, citing ill-health.

The former South Korean leader was indicted in April on 16 charges that included bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The court found that Lee was the de-facto owner of DAS – a controversial auto parts company which he claimed was his brother's – which he used to create slush funds of around 24 billion won.

Lee was also found guilty of accepting nearly 6 billion won from Samsung Electronics in return for a presidential pardon for its chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion.

Both Samsung and Lee have denied any wrongdoing. – Rappler.com
Former President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak is detained on charges of taking bribes when he was in office.