S. Korean prosecutors demand 20 years in jail for ex-president Lee Myung-bak

SEOUL -- South Korean state prosecutors demanded a 20-year imprisonment on Thursday for former conservative President Lee Myung-bak over corruption charges.

Prosecutors said in a final court hearing of the Lee case that the Seoul Central District Court should sentence Lee to 20 years in prison, requesting a fine of 15 billion won ($ 13.3 million) and a forfeiture of 11.1 billion won ($ 9.9 million).

Lee, who served a five-year presidency from early 2008, was arrest in late March, before being indicted in the following month on 16 counts of corruption charges including bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.

The 76-year-old was accused of embezzling tens of millions of US dollars from DAS, a local auto parts manufacturer that is believed to have been owned by Lee under borrowed names.

Lee was charged with taking bribes from the country's spy agency and Samsung Electronics as well as the head of a state-run banking group and a politician.

Samsung was suspected of paying litigation expenses in the US lawsuit for DAS, which prosecutors saw as a bribe to the former president.

Lee was also charged with illegally moving confidential presidential documents from the presidential Blue House to his private building after retirement.

Prosecutors said the defendant abused his presidential authority, commissioned by people, for his personal interest and tainted the constitutional history.

They noted that it was miserable for Lee to completely deny all of his wrongdoings, which were committed during his presidency.