South Korean prosecutors mull next steps on investigating former President Lee Myung-bak

SEOUL, March 14 (UPI) -- Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak returned home after facing state investigators for 21 hours over suspected bribery, embezzlement and abuse-of-power.

Lee left the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office around 6:25 a.m. on Thursday, without responding to reporters' questions.

The prosecution prepared 120 pages of questions for Lee, who they suspect took $10.3 million in kickbacks from the country's National Intelligence Service, Samsung Electronics and other companies, as well as hiding his assets and raising illegal slush funds through an auto company called DAS.

The former conservative leader is believed to have denied most of the charges, including his alleged ownership of the auto firm, Chosun Ilbo reported.

According to legal experts, prosecutors will now decide whether to request an arrest warrant, after which they are likely to indict him by late April before launching court proceedings in May.

They are likely to focus on proving their suspicions that Lee is the real owner of DAS and that he ordered the NIS to funnel some $1.6 million to his office through his closest aides.

Lee ex-presidential secretary Kim Baik-joon and two former NIS directors have already told prosecutors that they delivered the spy agency's funds to the top office under his orders.

Lee, however, claimed he had "never given orders to presidential staff to use NIS's special activities funds' nor had he ever been briefed on such a matter.

The 76-year-old is likely to deny all charges made against him in court hearings, Yonhap reported.

The businessman-turned-politician has insisted the state investigation is an act of political retaliation by the liberal Moon Jae-in government.

A Realmeter poll showed Thursday that eight in ten South Korean believe Lee should be strictly punished, according to the law, without preferential treatment.

79.5 percent of some 500 adults surveyed said Lee should be punished under law without consideration of his status as a former president.

Only 15.3 percent said he should be given preferential treatment as a former head of government.

The survey was conducted Wednesday with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.