South Korea’s former leader Park Geun-hye abused her power and pressured companies to pay her tens of millions of dollars in bribes, a prosecutor has told a Seoul court at the start of her corruption trial.
If found guilty of taking bribes from business leaders, including Samsung Group scion Jay Y. Lee — one of the key accusations that led to her impeachment — Ms 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 $40 million from Lee alone.
Park has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty at the trial, and her lawyers rejected the 18 charges against her in pre-trial proceedings.
Lee also rejected charges he bribed Ms Park in return for favours for Samsung.
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 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 Soon-sil, 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.
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 of the holding facility where Park has been held, waving the national flag and demanding her release.
The first day of the trial comes two weeks after the election of President Moon Jae-in, who promised to get tough on chaebol bosses who commit crimes.
Park was arrested on March 31, three weeks after she was removed from office by a Constitutional Court ruling and after a warrant judge decided she posed a flight risk and was likely to tamper with evidence.
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.
A lottery last week for 68 public seats available for the trial drew more than 500 people, most of them young people in their 20s and 30s.
Heo Go-eun, a 22-year-old university music major said she had cut her classes that day to enter the lottery.
“This will remain a page in history and I wanted to see for myself Park on trial,” said Ms Heo, adding she had participated in the candlelight rallies last year that drew millions of South Koreans to the street in peaceful protests.
