TIL Desk/World/Seoul-South Korean prosecutors today ordered ousted president Park Geun-Hye to appear before them next week for questioning over the corruption scandal that triggered her dramatic downfall. Park, who was dismissed by the Constitutional Court last Friday, will be required to attend a prosecutors’ office in Seoul next Tuesday, a spokesman said. “We have sent the order… to Park’s lawyer this morning. The summons date is 9:30 am (local time) on March 21,” he said in a statement.
Park, a criminal suspect in the scandal, had repeatedly refused to make herself available for questioning by the prosecutors before the country’s highest court confirmed a parliamentary impeachment motion against her. Friday’s final ruling stripped her of power and executive privileges, including protection from criminal indictment, and she left the presidential palace at the weekend.
Park’s lawyer said Wednesday she would “cooperate” with the probe. She is set to become the fourth former South Korean leader to be questioned by prosecutors over corruption scandals. Two former army-backed leaders who ruled in the 1980s and the early 1990s — Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo — both served jail terms for bribery after they retired.
