国际英语资讯:Ex-S.Korean President Lee Myung-bak taken into custody over corruption charges_时事

国际英语资讯:Ex-S.Korean President Lee Myung-bak taken into custody over corruption charges

Prosecutors demanded 30 years in jail for Park, who was detained for her dismissal of all charges levied against her. A Seoul court will hand down a ruling on the country's first-ever impeached president next month.

Lee was charged with taking tens of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes from the country's intelligence agency and big corporations including Samsung Electronics.

Samsung is alleged to have paid 5 million U.S. dollars of retaining fee, on Lee's behalf, in the United States for DAS, a South Korean auto parts maker which prosecutors said Lee owns under the names of his relatives.

In exchange for the payment, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee is believed to have bought a presidential pardon in 2009 when the Samsung chairman, currently in hospital, got a suspended jail sentence for tax evasion.

Prosecutors searched Samsung offices in Seoul and Suwon, outskirts of the capital city, in February before calling in former Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Hak-soo for questioning.

The charge related to DAS dated back to 1999 when the company invested 19 billion won (17 million U.S. dollars) in establishing investment consulting firm BBK, which faced a legal lawsuit for stock price manipulation in 2001.

In the United States, DAS filed a lawsuit against a former BBK president and received 14 billion won (13 million U.S. dollars) in damages through the former BBK head's personal bank account in February 2011 when Lee was in office.