{Prosecutors call Choi Soon-sil, facing allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs, “unstable” and a flight risk.}<\/p>\n
The woman at the centre of the political scandal embroiling President Park Geun-hye has been placed under emergency detention after prosecutors said she was “unstable” and a flight risk.<\/p>\n
Choi Soon-sil, who faces allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs over her decades-long friendship with Park, was questioned for hours on Monday after she returned to the country and handed herself in following mass street protests.<\/p>\n
“There is a possibility of Choi trying to destroy evidence as she is denying all the allegations,” a prosecution official told Yonhap news agency, explaining the decision to hold her for 48 hours.<\/p>\n
“She has fled overseas in the past, and she doesn’t have a permanent address in this country, making her a flight risk.<\/p>\n
“She is also in an extremely unstable psychological state, and it’s possible an unexpected event could occur if she is released.”<\/p>\n
Choi flew back to Seoul on Sunday from Germany to submit to herself for questioning and was surrounded by hundreds of journalists and angry protesters waving placards demanding her arrest.<\/p>\n
Dressed from head to toe in black, Choi lost her hat, sunglasses and one shoe as she struggled through the scrum to the Seoul district prosecutor’s office on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Please forgive me. I have committed a deadly sin,” Choi said after she made it inside the building, Yonhap reported.<\/p>\n
After a night in detention, she was escorted back to the prosecutors’ office early on Tuesday wearing a prison uniform for another round of questioning – which could last for days, Yonhap said.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have to decide whether to seek a warrant to formally arrest Choi before the emergency detention period expires.<\/p>\n
Public anger<\/p>\n
Park and Choi have been close friends for 40 years. The precise nature of that friendship lies at the heart of the scandal which has caused a media frenzy in South Korea, with lurid reports of religious cults and shamanistic rituals.<\/p>\n
Suggestions that Choi vetted presidential speeches and was given access to classified documents have exposed Park to public anger and ridicule and, with just over a year left in office, pushed down her approval ratings.<\/p>\n
Choi has also been accused of using her relationship with the president to coerce corporate donations to two non-profit foundations, and then siphon off funds for personal use.<\/p>\n
Park issued a public apology last week, acknowledging seeking limited advice from Choi on her speeches.<\/p>\n
But it did little to assuage public outrage, with mass street protests erupting in Seoul and other cities to demand Park’s resignation.<\/p>\n
The Hankyoreh newspaper reported on Tuesday that Choi had been a frequent visitor to the presidential Blue House since Park took office in 2013 – something Park’s administration has denied.<\/p>\n
Park on Sunday carried out a partial reshuffle of key aides accused of being linked to Choi.<\/p>\n
She is also considering calls from her ruling Saenuri Party to form a neutral multi-party cabinet to restore public trust and national unity.<\/p>\n
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has stopped short of demanding Park’s resignation.<\/p>\n
But it is refusing to begin cross-party talks on how to end the crisis until the investigation into Choi has run its course.<\/p>\n
Under South Korea’s constitutional law, an incumbent president is exempt from being submitted to prosecution for any criminal offence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Prosecutors call Choi Soon-sil, facing allegations of fraud and meddling in state affairs, “unstable” and a flight risk.} The woman at the centre of the political scandal embroiling President Park Geun-hye has been placed under emergency detention after prosecutors said she was “unstable” and a flight risk. Choi Soon-sil, who faces allegations of fraud and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29926"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29926"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}