Former president Lee Myung-bak will stand trial today on more than a dozen corruption charges, including embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power.<br />We have our Oh Soo-young on the line to get us up to speed on the proceedings.<br />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...<br /><br /> <br />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.<br />Although he sat out of preparatory court proceedings, Lee is widely expected to show up today, as it's his first official trial hearing.<br />His legal team has already said he plans to give a verbal statement for about ten minutes in front of the judges.<br /> Lee is facing 16 corruption charges. <br />Of them, one of the most legally-troubling,... is the charge he took kickbacks worth nearly eleven million U.S. dollars.<br />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.<br />Prosecutors also say the former leader embezzled some 32 million dollars mostly through DAS to fund political campaigns and his household expenses. <br />Lee is also believed to have used DAS to evade taxes.<br />Other charges against him include abuse-of-power, breach of trust and violating laws on presidential records.<br /><br /> 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...<br /><br /> <br />That's right. The 76-year-old has, so far, denied all 16 charges against him.<br />This includes his ownership of DAS, and his knowledge of the alleged bribery and embezzlement cases. <br />The former president insists the incumbent liberal government's anti-corruption drive is an act of political retaliation.<br />He's also refused to answer prosecutors' questions when they visited him at the detention center, where he's been held for 62 days.<br />So Lee is largely expected to maintain his stance that he's an innocent victim of a politically motivated campaign against him.<br />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. <br />
