President Park and Choi’s denial

Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the center of the ongoing influence-peddling scandal, denied all charges in court on Monday. Her lawyer, Lee Kyeong-jae, said in the first preliminary hearing before her trial begins, “Prosecutor claimed that she conspired with the president in eight charges, but she did not conspire with the president. As it was no conspiracy which is a precondition, she cannot admit her guilt.”  

Choi had said she deserved death upon at the airport after a trip back home from Germany, but now she insists on her innocence, which is probably because she might be sentenced to a severe punishment if she admits what prosecutors wrote in the arraignment. She is accused of 11 charges including abuse of power, coercion and attempted fraud. They include charges of forcing large companies to donate 77.4 billion won (66.3 million U.S. dollars) for the Mir and K-Sports foundations that she established and ordering Hyundai Motor Group to sign a supply contract worth 1.1 billion won (942,590 dollars) with a parts supplier and give advertisements worth 7.1 billion won (6.08 million dollars) to a specific company.

There are plenty of evidence such as the tablet that prosecutors said is owned by her, her former aide’s notebook and the recorded tape of Choi’s another aide, all of which Choi cannot deny. Even the voice record unveiled by Rep. Park Young-sun of the main opposition Minjoo Party, in which Choi said, “We need to drive this in the direction that this was completely manipulated and they stole this and did this,” would not allow Choi to be acquitted.

President Park said in her response to the Constitutional Court and claimed that the impeachment itself is against the Constitution, saying, “Holding the president responsible for what Choi did is in violation of the ban on the guilt-by-association system under the Constitution.” It makes us suspect that President Park really thinks that Choi is her relative given that the system is applied to relatives. Park claimed that Choi was involved in less than one percent in state affairs, but it is hard to understand where the number came. In the response, she said the scandal is comparable to the corruption scandals involving former President Roh Moo-hyun’s elder brother who intervened in appointment at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and former President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother who served as a channel taking public complaints. However this case is different given that President Park is suspected of being an accomplice.

President Park denied all charges in the response, saying, “I did not take any personal gain and did not recognize that Choi was seeking personal interests.” Choi also gave a similar response in the first trial. Their court strategy of denying truth will not succeed both in the court and the Constitutional Court.