South Korea ex-president Lee indicted

FORMER South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was formally indicted for corruption yesterday, becoming the latest of the country’s ex-leaders to face criminal charges.

The CEO-turned-president who served from 2008 to 2013 has been charged with bribery, power abuse, embezzlement, and tax evasion, state prosecutors said in a statement.

It comes just days after Lee’s successor as president, Park Geun-hye, was jailed for 24 years for corruption.

“We will thoroughly retrieve the criminal proceeds that were accumulated by Lee through illegal means,” prosecutor Han Dong-hoon told reporters.

Lee was detained late last month but has since refused to be interrogated by prosecutors. He has denied any wrongdoing and has denounced the investigation as a “political revenge.”

If convicted of all the allegations, the septuagenarian Lee could be jailed for life, Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korean presidents have tended to end up in jail after their time in power — usually once their political rivals move into the presidential Blue House. All four former presidents who are still alive have now been charged or convicted for criminal offenses.

Conservative Lee’s successor Park was sentenced to 24 years in prison and fined millions of dollars last week for bribery and abuse of power.

Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, former army generals who were in power through the 1980s to early 1990s, served jail terms for corruption and treason after leaving office. Both received presidential pardons after serving about two years.

Another former leader, Roh Moo-hyun, committed suicide after becoming embroiled in a corruption probe.

Lee has been accused of accepting a total 11 billion won (US$10.2 million) in bribes between late 2007 when he was elected president and 2012, according to prosecutors.