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Thursday 02 September 2010
ARIRANG NEWS 22:00
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| Updated : May 1, 2009 |
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| Tug-of-War Between Prosecutors and Roh Ends For Now |
Eleven-twenty p.m. that's when the prosecutors' office officially wrapped up its interrogation of former President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday.
Roh finally stepped out of the prosecutors' office at a little past 2 a.m. on Friday after he was grilled for nearly 10 hours over a bribery scandal.
More than two hours was also spent on getting Roh's statement proofed and signed.
When all was said and done Roh was a man of very few words as he walked past a swarm of journalists waiting outside.
[Interview : Former President Roh Moo-hyun] "I did my best at the interrogation."
Hours before the legal tug-of-war came to an end the prosecutors were hoping for a breakthrough after calling in their star witness Park Yeon-cha for a cross-examination with the ex-president.
But Roh balked at the idea and refused to take questions while his long-time friend and financial backer was present.
Taekwang Industry chairman Park who was arrested late last year on charges of bribery and tax evasion in a separate case is accused of giving a total of 6 million US dollars to Roh's wife and their son when Roh was still in office.
In previous summons, Park told prosecutors that he forked over one million dollars to Roh in 2007 after getting a phone call from the president asking for money.
According to Park he personally delivered another 5 million dollars to Roh just days before he left office in February last year.
The ex-president has maintained his innocence claiming his wife Kwon Yang-sook received the one million dollars from Park to settle an outstanding debt and indicating that Park had actually invested 5 million in a venture company of the husband of his niece.
On Thursday Roh said he didn't know anything about the 6 million during his presidency.
The prosecutors' office plans to summon the former first lady for the second time after she was questioned by authorities.
The prosecutors' office is expected to either file a warrant for Roh's arrest or indict him without ordering jail time.
Speculation has it the authorities are leaning toward the former.
The prosecutors' office could seek an arrest warrant against Roh as early as this weekend.
In the coming days the higher echelon of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office will pore over Roh's statement from Thursday's Q&A and decide on the next step.
The prosecutors' office is worried that the court could dismiss the arrest warrant which would deal a serious blow to its authority in enforcing the law.
Nam Ki-yung, Arirang News.
MAY 01, 2009
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in National News |
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Friday, SEP 03, 2010, (KST) 
