{"id":11184,"date":"2017-03-11T07:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T07:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/south-korea-impeachment-critics-urge-park-geun-hye-arrest\/"},"modified":"2017-03-11T07:06:26","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T07:06:26","slug":"south-korea-impeachment-critics-urge-park-geun-hye-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/south-korea-impeachment-critics-urge-park-geun-hye-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea impeachment: Critics urge Park Geun-hye arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Supporters of the president turned out in force on Saturday\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/F047\/production\/_95111516_038413802-1.jpg\"\/>Image copyright                  AP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Supporters of the president turned out in force on Saturday                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye is keeping her silence as calls grow for her arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Park was forced from office on Friday, after judges unanimously upheld parliament&#039;s decision to impeach her over her role in a corruption scandal involving close friend, Choi Soon-sil.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ruling, she remains inside the presidential compound.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands turned out for rallies in Seoul on Saturday, a day after three people involved in protests died there.<\/p>\n<p>Many are supporting Ms Park but counter-demonstrators are also expected.<\/p>\n<p>There are fears the two sides may clash and there is a heavy police presence.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Park&#039;s removal divides South Korea<\/li>\n<li>How identity politics fuelled scandal<\/li>\n<li>What does this mean for South Korea?<\/li>\n<li>North Korea pounces on Park dismissal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A spokeswoman for the protesters supporting the court&#039;s decision, Choi In-sook, told Reuters they were demanding the arrest of their former leader.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Park has lost her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the country&#039;s election commission announced a &quot;free and fair&quot; vote would be held by 9 May at the latest.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Anti-Park protesters have been calling for her to be arrested                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Currently, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party is leading in the polls, with one survey putting him almost 22% ahead of his nearest rival, acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is loyal to Ms Park.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hwang has called for calm, saying the government should remain stable to prevent internal conflict from spreading. <\/p>\n<p>However, police are bracing themselves for more violence following the deaths of two of Ms Park&#039;s supporters on Friday.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Media captionSouth Korea is split over President Park&#039;s impeachment<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A third person, aged 74, is understood to have had a heart attack during Friday&#039;s protests, and died on Saturday, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Park&#039;s office said she would not be leaving the Blue House, South Korea&#039;s presidential palace, on Friday nor making any statement.<\/p>\n<p>It is understood she will not leave until her own home in Seoul is repaired and cleaned.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of the drama lies the close friendship between the president and Ms Choi. <\/p>\n<p>Ms Choi is accused of using her presidential connections to pressure companies to give millions of dollars in donations to non-profit foundations she controlled. <\/p>\n<p>Ms Park is alleged to have been personally involved in this, and to have given Ms Choi unacceptable levels of access to official documents. <\/p>\n<p>Parliament voted to impeach Ms Park in December and the Constitutional Court has since been deciding whether to uphold or overturn this. <\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Ms Park has also lost her presidential immunity and can be prosecuted                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On Friday, a panel of eight judges ruled Ms Park&#039;s actions &quot;seriously impaired the spirit of... democracy and the rule of law&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The court said she had broken the law by allowing Ms Choi to meddle in state affairs, and had breached guidelines on official secrets by leaking numerous documents.  <\/p>\n<p>Ms Park had &quot;concealed completely Choi&#039;s meddling in state affairs and denied it whenever suspicions over the act emerged and even criticised those who raised the suspicions,&quot; it said. <\/p>\n<p>But the judges dismissed some charges, including accusations Ms Park had infringed on freedom of the press by creating a media blacklist of cultural figures, and criticism of her response during the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-39240909 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright APImage caption Supporters of the president turned out in force on Saturday Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye is keeping her silence as calls grow for her arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}