Prosecutors in South Korea have requested an arrest warrant for the former president Lee Myung-bak on charges of graft, embezzlement and abuse of power, making him the fourth former leader to face criminal charges.
Lee, who was president from 2008 to 2013, is accused of accepting bribes worth about 11bn won (£7.4m) from South Korea’s national intelligence agency and businesses, reportedly including Samsung.
“Each accusation he faces is a significant offence that requires formal arrest,” an official from the prosecutor’s office said, according to Yonhap news. “We explained the unavoidable need for his arrest, and also that there is a great risk of him destroying evidence since he has denied even basic facts related to the allegations.”
In response, Lee’s office said he “cannot accept the charges outlaid by the state prosecutors” and he planned to “fight with full-fledged effort to get the truth out at court”.
The likely arrest comes a year after Lee’s successor, Park Geun-hye, was arrested on corruption charges following months of street protests. She became the first South Korean president to be impeached in December 2016 and prosecutors last month asked for her to be sentenced to 30 years in prison for accepting £15m in bribes.
Lee, 76, was questioned by police last week for a total of 21 hours over two days.
“I stand here with a heavy heart,” Lee said when he arrived at the prosecutors’ office in Seoul last week, confronting a bank of television cameras. “I hope that I will be the last former president to stand here.”
“I’m very sorry for causing concern to the people,” he told reporters, adding that the security situation on the Korean peninsula was “dire”. He has previously called the investigation “political revenge” and denied the charges against him.
He is accused of accepting bribes from Samsung in exchange for a pardon for the company’s chairman.
The charges date back to his presidential run in 2007 when he allegedly took bribes from a buddhist monk who wanted Lee’s help in establishing a university. Lee, a former Hyundai executive, is also accused of using his presidential power to settle a legal case against an auto parts company he secretly owned. He reportedly then had Samsung pay the company’s legal fees.
He is also accused of moving classified government documents to a warehouse owned by DAS, the auto-parts company.
Prosecutors are also investigating Lee’s wife, Kim Yoon-ok, on suspicion that she accepted about £660,000 in bribes from sources including the national intelligence service.
Lee will probably become the fourth former president to face criminal charges. Aside from Park, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were convicted of bribery and sedition in 1996 but were pardoned a year later.
Roh Moo-hyun was not formally charged, but committed suicide in 2009 after being questioned by prosecutors on allegations of graft. The current South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, accused Lee of targeting Roh in an effort to discredit liberal politicians.
• The subheading on this article was amended on 20 March 2018 because an earlier version said Lee was accused of accepting £7.4bn worth of bribes. This has been corrected.
