Roh aide detained again in widening corruption probe

SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- Jung Sang-moon, a confidant of former President Roh
Moo-hyun, was taken into emergency custody around midnight Saturday for
questioning over a fresh allegation of bribery, prosecutors said Sunday, as they
intensified a probe into a corruption scandal centered around a local business
tycoon and the former president.

Jung's sudden arrest came as prosecutors geared up to summon Roh later this week
for questioning over whether he received tens of billions of won in bribes from
the business executive during his five-year presidential term, which ended in
February 2008.
Roh's wife, Kwon Yang-sook, and one of his in-laws have been found to have
accepted at least US$6 million and 300 million won ($225,000) from Park Yeon-cha,
chairman of shoemaker Taekwang Industry, between 2006 and 2008. But prosecutors
suspect Roh was the final recipient of those bribes.
Jung, an old friend of Roh's who served as the presidential secretary for
administrative affairs during his term, has confessed to playing middleman for
the transactions.
In early April, Jung was arrested on charges of receiving 400 million won worth
of cash and gift certificates from Park, accepting $30,000 and 8 million won from
former Nonghyup Chairman Chung Dae-kun and delivering $1 million from Park to
former first lady Kwon.
But a Seoul district court rejected an arrest warrant against Jung and set him
free on April 10, citing lack of concrete evidence.
Investigators at the Supreme Prosecutors Office said they have found fresh
evidence indicating Jung was involved in other bribery case, unrelated to Park or
Chung. Prosecutors are looking into whether the new allegations have any link to
the Roh family, the investigators said.
They added prosecutors are continuing to seek evidence that Jung played a role in
delivering bribes to the family of the former president and awarded business
favors to the Taekwang Industry chairman.
(END)