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Former President Park Geun-hye arrives at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to face being questioned

The Prosecutors’ special investigation headquarters plans to refer former President Park Geun-hye for trial shortly after reviewing their investigation findings.

With Park currently facing 13 charges, the trial process could last over a year before a final Supreme Court ruling. A heavy sentence of five years or more appears inevitable if bribery charges against her stand up.

The bribe acceptance charges are the key issue. Park stands accused of conspiring with Choi Sun-sil to facilitate the transfer of management rights to Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, receiving a total of 43.3 billion won (US$38.5 million) in return through the Mir and K-Sports Foundations and companies owned by Choi. The total charges and amount of bribes received could rise further as Prosecutors make rapid progress with a supplementary investigation of bribery allegations involving Park, Lotte, and SK. While the Prosecutors differ from the team of Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo in their position on bribery and coercion charges in connection with 20.4 billion won (US$18.2 billion) provided to the two foundations out of the 43.3 billion won passed along by Samsung, the differences appear likely to be resolved during the trial process.

The key question at the trial is expected to be whether Park was aware of a transactional relationship. Park’s team has claimed that she never received any request to facilitate the Samsung management rights transfer, and that the 43.3 billion won received from Samsung was not given with the expectation of something in return. In other words, the team has denied the very facts of the case.

Prosecutors plan to substantiate the charges based on a work notebook belonging to former Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Policy Coordination Ahn Jong-beom that contains specific records of Park’s orders; mobile phone text messages exchanged with Samsung officials; and previous statements. In particular, statements from Ministry of Health and Welfare officials who collected information on moves for a merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, which was happening on Blue House orders, are expected to serve as crucial evidence.

Park has also claimed to have given “no orders” or to have been “unaware” in connection with additional charges, including abuse of power in the ordering of a blacklist and interference in personnel appointments and exposure of official secrets in the leaking of Blue House documents. The Prosecutors, for their part, are confident of having obtained ample evidence and statements through former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon, former Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun, and former Blue House secretary Jeong Ho-seong.

Prosecutors plan to proceed with an indictment of Park before mid-April at the latest. To minimize a potential impact on the presidential election in May, Prosecutors plan to conclude their investigation of Park by mid-April, when presidential campaigning enters full swing.

A heavy sentence appears unavoidable if the bribery charges stand up in court. Convictions involving 100 million won (US$89,000) or more in bribes result in a life sentence or ten or more years in prison. Additional penalties also appear likely, as Park faces a number of criminal charges besides bribery, including abuse of power, coercion, and leaking of official secrets.

“The investigation is still under way, so it’s not the stage to be talking about specific sentences,” said a court source.

“But Park is facing a number of charges, and if the bribery charges in particular stand up, she appears likely to receive a considerable sentence,” the source added.

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

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