Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-Hye goes on trial Read more at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/58802443.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
SEOUL: South Korea’s ousted president Park Geun-Hye, grim-faced and brought to court in handcuffs, went on trial Tuesday over a sprawling corruption scandal that saw millions take to the streets and led to her downfall.
Only two months after leaving the presidential palace in disgrace, Park appeared at the Seoul Central District Court with a badge bearing her prisoner number pinned to her blue trouser suit, and no make-up.
She avoided meeting the glance of her longtime ..
The trial, expected to last for months, is the final act in the drama that engulfed Park, the daughter of a dictator who went on to be elected president herself before she was sacked by the country’s top court.
Presiding judge Kim Se-Yun, who heads a three-man panel — there is no jury — asked her: “What is your occupation, the accused Park Geun-Hye?”
She responded: “I don’t have any occupation.”
Park, 65, is the third former South Korean leader to stand trial for corruption.
She was impeached by parliament in December after mass demonstrations – that built on economic and social frustrations – to demand her removal over a scandal centred on Choi, her friend of 40 years, and implicating some of the country’s top businessmen.
She was detained soon after her dismissal — Tuesday’s court session was her first public appearance since then — and indicted on 18 charg ..
They include Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong, who is being tried separately, and Shin Dong-Bin, the chairman of retail giant Lotte, the South’s fifth-biggest conglomerate, who was among the accused Tuesday.
Choi, the daughter of a shadowy religious figure who was Park’s mentor for years, is similarly accused of using her presidential ties to force top firms to “donate” nearly $70 million to non-profit foundations which she then used for personal gain.
Prosecutors told the court that Park and Choi colluded in receiving seven billion won ($6 million) from Shin last year.
Park met Samsung’s Lee in July 2015 and told him she hoped the succession at the world’s biggest smartpho ..
