Former President Lee Myung-bak has been detained on corruption charges after a Seoul court issued an arrest warrant late Thursday night.<br />Lee was taken from his home in southern Seoul to a detention center in the east of the capital.<br />Our Cha Sang-mi was outside the detention center, to tell us more about the situation.<br /> <br /> The former president arrived at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center in Songpa-gu District, southeastern Seoul in the early hours of Friday morning, less than an hour after the Seoul Central District Court issued an arrest warrant against him.<br /> Before leaving his home, the former president posted a photograph of a hand-written statement on his Facebook page, saying (quote) "I don't blame others. Everything is my fault and I feel remorse."<br />Lee's legal team expressed regret over the decision and said that "this is the start of a long fight", signaling their plan to challenge each of the allegations in court.<br /> As for the interrogation, the prosecutors this morning said there will be no questioning today, considering Lee's old age and the busy schedule of his first day of detention, which includes a medical examination,... but said they will be visiting the detention center for questioning in the near future.<br /> Normally suspects processed by the Seoul Central District Court are detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Gyeonggi-do Province, but the court decided to hold Lee at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center, considering another former president, Park Geun-hye, is being held at the Seoul Detention Center.<br /><br /> “Lee is now in solitary confinement on the top floor of the detention center... in a cell that's just ten square meters big. That sounds small, but it's almost double the size of an average solitary cell and includes a TV set and separate shower facilities.”<br /><br /> It's been about a year since Lee's successor,.. Park Geun-hye was arrested on March 31st 2017 on serious corruption charges, including bribery and abuse of power. <br />Her trial is coming to a close and prosecutors are demanding she serve 30 years in jail.<br /> With Lee Myung-bak's arrest, he becomes the fourth living former Korean president to have been detained over allegations of past corruption.<br />The 76-year-old faces at least 14 charges, the most serious of which is receiving ten million U.S. dollars in bribes from businesses and agencies.<br /> Other charges include embezzlement, tax evasion, and a violation of election law.<br /> This also marks the first time in 23 years that two ex-presidents are detained at the same time.<br />Ex-presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were jailed for mutiny and corruption in 1995, but were released two years later through a presidential pardon.<br />Cha Sang-mi, Arirang News. <br />
