Former president Lee Myung-bak will stand trial today on more than a dozen corruption charges, including embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power.
We have our Oh Soo-young on the line to get us up to speed on the proceedings.
Soo-young,... the ex-president has been sitting out of the pre-trial sessions,... but now the trial is officially starting,... we hear he will be there... and has some things he wants to get off his mind...


Yes, former conservative leader Lee Myung-bak, who president of Korea from 2008 to 2013, will attend his first trial session at the Seoul Central District Court at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.... so it's set to start in a couple of hours from now.
Although he sat out of preparatory court proceedings, Lee is widely expected to show up today, as it's his first official trial hearing.
His legal team has already said he plans to give a verbal statement for about ten minutes in front of the judges.
Lee is facing 16 corruption charges.
Of them, one of the most legally-troubling,... is the charge he took kickbacks worth nearly eleven million U.S. dollars.
This includes around 650-thousand dollars from the country's intelligence agency,... and six-point-three million from Samsung Electronics to cover lawsuit fees for an auto part company called DAS,... which he's widely suspected of covertly owning.
Prosecutors also say the former leader embezzled some 32 million dollars mostly through DAS to fund political campaigns and his household expenses.
Lee is also believed to have used DAS to evade taxes.
Other charges against him include abuse-of-power, breach of trust and violating laws on presidential records.

Sooyoung, we know Lee has denied all the charges against him so far. Observers assume he will continue to plead his innocence in a very public way today...


That's right. The 76-year-old has, so far, denied all 16 charges against him.
This includes his ownership of DAS, and his knowledge of the alleged bribery and embezzlement cases.
The former president insists the incumbent liberal government's anti-corruption drive is an act of political retaliation.
He's also refused to answer prosecutors' questions when they visited him at the detention center, where he's been held for 62 days.
So Lee is largely expected to maintain his stance that he's an innocent victim of a politically motivated campaign against him.
We'll have to wait and see what he has to say today. I'll keep you up to date with the latest. This has been Oh Soo-young from Arirang News Center.