23 May 2017•Update: 23 May 2017
Alex Jensen
SEOUL
The Ousted former leader of South Korea, Park Geun-hye, on Tuesday denied all charges in her first court appearance since her parliamentary impeachment in December in a power abuse scandal.
The 65-year-old arrived in handcuffs and prison badge number 503 for a 10 a.m. local time (0100GMT) hearing before a three-judge panel at Seoul Central District Court.
Park faces 18 allegations including influence-peddling, forcing corporate donations, leaking government secrets and overseeing a cultural blacklist that targeted thousands of artists.
Her lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, dismissed the charges as based on news articles, while Park was quoted by local news agency Yonhap as saying, "My stance is the same as my attorneys."
The daughter of assassinated South Korean authoritarian ruler Park Chung-hee was jailed in March after being formally expelled by the Constitutional Court that upheld the parliament’s decision in a trial that Park did not attend.
Her denial of the charges will come as no surprise to onlookers as the former leader’s legal team had already done so on her behalf during two preliminary sessions.
She is now South Korea’s third former president to be tried on corruption following Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo in the 1990s. Both were pardoned early in their sentences.
Park’s next court appearance is set for Thursday with up to three hearings planned each week until a verdict is reached within five months that could see her imprisoned for decades.
