Arrest warrant hearing for former President Park Geun-hye ends

Описание: 박근혜 전 대통령 구속영장 실질 심사 종료

We begin with the arrest warrant hearing for former President Park Geun-hye.
Our Kim Ji-yeon who has been standing by at the court.
Ji-yeon, do start us off with some of the sticking points for the district court.

For the court today, the main focus was not on whether the former president is guilty or not guilty of the criminal charges she's facing. Rather, it was determining whether the suspect is a flight risk -- whether letting Park go free would jeopardize the prosecutors' investigation into the criminal charges against her.
Prosecutors are said to have argued that it would be legally sound to put Park in jail... due to the severity of the 13 charges she faces... including a bribery charge that would carry a sentence of more than ten years in prison.
She's suspected of accepting a bribe of nearly 40-million U.S. dollars from Samsung Group, as well as colluding with her confidante Choi Soon-sil to extort tens of millions of dollars from conglomerates,... leaking confidential presidential office documents to Choi... and ordering the creation of a blacklist of cultural figures critical of the government.
Prosecutors may have also argued that her closest former aides, her longtime confidante as well as Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong are already behind bars for colluding with or aiding Park in her alleged offenses... so it would not be fair to apply the law differently in her case.
On the other hand, the former president has reportedly denied all of the charges again today in court. But whether that will help keep her out of jail is unclear... because the judge could interpret it as a willingness of the suspect to obstruct the authorities' investigation... by using her influence to alter witness testimony, and so on.

The hearing is over now, and the wait begins.
There's no arguing how significant that ruling will be on various levels.

All eyes are on this case since it's the first time a former Korean president has appeared before a district judge deliberating on her arrest warrant... and it's most likely going to become a reference case in the future if a disgraced state leader becomes liable for criminal charges during his or her time in office.
That's why the country is paying attention to every detail and whether she received special treatment... such as whether the district judge referred to Park as "former president" or "suspect"... which was later found to be the latter.
The result of the deliberation, many believe could come out at the crack of dawn on Friday... with the former President awaiting her fate at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.
Back to you.

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