SEOUL: South Korea’s ousted president Park Geun-Hye was spending her first day in custody on Friday after a court ordered her arrest, with her opponents crowing and her supporters crying.

The former head of state stared straight ahead, apparently trying to maintain her composure, as she was driven to the Seoul Detention Centre through a barrage of flashbulbs shortly before dawn.

After a marathon hearing on Thursday a court in the capital ordered Park’s arrest in connection with the corruption scandal that brought millions of people onto the streets and saw her impeached.

Prosecutors have yet to specify the formal charges against her, but have previously said she is suspected of bribery, abuse of authority, coercion, and leaking government secrets.

“It is justifiable and necessary to arrest (Park) as key charges were justified and there is risk of evidence being destroyed,” the court said in a statement.

The decision made Park, 65, the third former leader to be arrested over corruption in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, where politics and big business have long been closely tied.

It is a dramatic step in the disgrace of South Korea’s first woman president.

The liberal Democratic Party, which is favourite to win the election on May 9 to choose Park’s successor, said in a statement that the move showed “all are equal before the law”.

“We hope today’s landmark decision will provide fresh momentum in revealing the truth about the scandal of an unprecedented scale,” it added.

But Park’s own Liberty Korea party — which has changed its name in an effort to distance itself from her — called the move “regrettable”.

Loyalist lawmaker and presidential hopeful Kim Jin-Tae was furious, calling it “the death knell for the country’s rule of law”.

While in office, Park took a tough approach to nuclear-armed North Korea, repeatedly calling for stronger international sanctions against the regime and openly urging more of its citizens to defect to the South, and Pyongyang’s official organs were relatively quick to report her arrest.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2017