A lawyer known as her « bullet-proof vest » is on former South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s legal team. So are two failed candidates for parliament from
SEOUL – A lawyer known as her “bullet-proof vest” is on former South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s legal team. So are two failed candidates for parliament from her ruling party.
Park has turned to a group of loyalists for her legal defense as she faces questioning on Tuesday from prosecutors as a criminal suspect in a widening corruption probe that has already cost her the presidency.
Her legal lineup is a stark contrast to the star-studded team assembled by Samsung Group head, Jay Y. Lee, who is on trial on charges of bribing Park. They include high-powered former prosecutors now with one of the country’s top law firms, Bae, Kim & Lee, known for its litigation expertise.
Park has denied wrongdoing and has not been charged in the case. She could face more than 10 years in jail if convicted of receiving bribes from Lee and other “chaebol” bosses in return for favors in the scandal.
Park, 65, became the first democratically elected leader to be removed from office when the Constitutional Court on March 10 upheld her December impeachment by parliament. Park’s lawyers said she would cooperate with the prosecutors.
“I know and believe that Park is innocent, even if the press and the world have made her look like a criminal,” Sohn Bum-kyu, one of the seven lawyers appointed by the former leader, told Reuters.
Sohn is a one-term member of parliament who Park personally campaigned for in his losing bid for a second term in 2012. He has not worked as a prosecutor or as a judge, normally part of the resume when establishing an influential private practice.
Among her officially appointed team of seven lawyers, three have previously been prosecutors, but none of them in senior posts — a departure from the usual pedigree of lawyers defending high-profile persons in South Korea criminal trials.
