South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-hye has been arrested over the corruption and abuse of a power scandal that brought her down.
She was taken to a detention centre in Seoul on March 31, 2017.
The Seoul Central District Court ordered Ms. Park’s arrest on charges of bribery, abuse of authority, coercion, and leaking government secrets, after a marathon court hearing the previous day.
Ms. Park, 65, becomes the third former leader to be arrested over corruption in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, where politics and big business have long been closely tied.
Being taken into custody is a dramatic step in the disgrace of South Korea’s first woman President, and was a key demand of the millions of people who took to the streets to protest against her as the scandal engulfed her leadership last year.
The former leader was grilled for nearly nine hours in court on Thursday as a judge deliberated whether she should be arrested.
She was stripped of her immunity when she was dismissed from office by the country’s top court earlier this month. She has denied the accusations against her.
An election to choose her successor will be held on May 9, 2017. Moon Jae-in, her rival in 2012 and a former Democratic Party leader leads opinion polls by large margins.
South Korea- Capital: Seoul
- Code: +82
- Currency: South Korean won
- Prime minister: Hwang Kyo-ahn
- Population: 50.22 million (2013) World Bank
