South Korean Prosecutors Seek 1-Year Jail Term For Ex-PM Lee Wan-Koo In Bribery Case

Prosecutors in South Korea are seeking one-year prison sentence for the country’s former prime minister Lee Wan-Koo, who is accused of taking bribes from a now-deceased businessman, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday. The accusation against Lee came after Sung Wan-jong, the late chairman of construction firm Keangnam Enterprises Inc., left behind a list of people who accepted bribes before he committed suicide in April, last year.

Lee allegedly accepted 30 million won ($27,000) in cash from Sung while running for parliament. After the list became public, Lee was pressured to resign in April, 2015. Apart from Lee, the list featured names of seven other former and current senior politicians close to South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

According to the prosecutors, they sought one-year jail sentence for Lee as his actions "severely damaged" the laws related to the transparency of political funding, Yonhap reported.

Lee has consistently denied the bribery accusations against him, and claimed that he barely knew Sung. However, local media outlets published photographs, telephone records and the content of Sung’s diaries, which indicate that the two had spoken on the phone and had met several times.

Meanwhile, Park had demanded a “thorough” investigation into the case.