S. Korea's ex-leader Park abused power to gain bribes – prosecutor
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's former leader Park Geunhye abused her power and pressured companies to pay her tens of millions of dollars in bribes, a prosecutor told a Seoul court at the start of her corruption trial on Tuesday.
If found guilty of taking bribes from business leaders including Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] scion Jay Y. Lee, one of the key accusations that led to her impeachment, Park faces more than 10 years in jail.
Park, the country's first democratically elected leader to be removed from office, is charged with taking bribes worth about 29.8 billion won ($26.65 million) from Lee alone.
"The accused Park Geun-Hye, in collusion with her friend Choi Soon-Sil... abused power and pressured business companies to provide bribes, thus taking private gains," senior prosecutor Lee Won-Seok told the court.
Park has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty at the trial. Her lawyers rejected the 18 charges against her in pre-trial proceedings. Lee has also rejected charges he bribed Park in return for favors for Samsung.
"There was no reason for president
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian President Michel Temer, facing growing calls for his resignation over a corruption scandal, said he would not step down even if he was formally indicted by the Supreme Court.
"I will not resign. Oust me if you want, but if I stepped down, I would be admitting guilt," Temer told Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's biggest newspaper, in an interview published on Monday.
Brazilians who have become inured to a massive, three-year corruption investigation were shocked last week by the disclosure of a recording that Park to force companies to donate money which she was unable to use for herself," Park's lawyer Yoo Yeong-Ha told the court.
"There were no monetary gains she could have had personally from the establishment of the two foundations, as no individuals could freely take funds from the foundations," said Yoo, referring to two sporting foundations formed to support Park's policies.
Park's court appearance is the first time she has been seen in public since her arrest in March. She arrived at court handcuffed and wearing a navy pantsuit, her hair held back in a haphazard bun and her face showing little sign of make-up.
In the courtroom she sat grim faced, her eyes puffy, looking straight ahead, next to a lawyer sitting with Choi Soonsil, the friend accused of colluding with Park to take bribes.
The two, who are being reunited for the first time since the scandal erupted in public in late October, did not acknowledge each other or exchange words as they entered the courtroom.
"I don't have any occupation," Park said when the presiding judge asked her to state her basic personal information. appeared to show Temer condoning the payment of hush money to a jailed lawmaker.
The scandal has threatened to tear apart Temer's coalition in Congress and leave Latin America's largest economy adrift as the president fights for his political survival, just a year after the impeachment of his predecessor.
The Supreme Court has opened an investigation into the revelations that were part of plea bargain testimony by the billionaire owners of meatpacking giant JBS SA (JBSS3.SA). Media reported Park said she did not want a jury trial. Defendants have the right to be tried by a jury although its decision is not binding and can be changed by the presiding judge.
Many Park supporters were seen on the court grounds and at the entrance
The court had been expected to decide this week whether to suspend the investigation at Temer's request until it could be determined if the recording of his March conversation with JBS chairman Joesley Batista was doctored to implicate the leader.
But Chief Justice Carmen Lucia ruled on Monday that the court would not take up the recording issue until Brazil's federal police finished their examination of the tape and determined if it had been edited, possibly making it inadmissible as evidence in the investigation. of the holding facility where Park has been held, waving the national flag and demanding her release.
Media reports said she spent her time in her prison cell awaiting trial reading the English dictionary and keeping away from the news available for inmates.