A bribery charge against Moon Jae-in makes him the latest in a line of former leaders to face criminal action, deepening the country’s political polarization.
Former President Moon Jae-in of South Korea was indicted on a bribery charge on Thursday, becoming the latest ex-leader to face a criminal trial in a country where subjecting former leaders to criminal investigations has become a recurring pattern.
Mr. Moon, who left office after his five-year term ended in 2022, faces the corruption charge in connection with the employment of his former son-in-law at a now-defunct small budget airline in Thailand, prosecutors said on Thursday.
The former son-in-law, at the time married to Mr. Moon’s daughter, Da-hye, received 217 million won, or around $150,000, in salary and housing allowances from the airline between 2018 and 2020, according to the district prosecutor’s office in Jeonju, south of Seoul. (The couple later divorced.)
In their indictment, Jeonju prosecutors said they considered the money a bribe paid to Mr. Moon by Lee Sang-jik, a South Korean businessman and former lawmaker who controlled the airline. Mr. Lee made the son-in-law an executive there as a favor to Mr. Moon’s family although he was not qualified for the job, they said.
Under Mr. Moon, Mr. Lee served as the head of a government agency in charge of promoting small businesses and was elected as a lawmaker affiliated with Mr. Moon’s Democratic Party in 2020. Mr. Lee lost his parliamentary seat after he was arrested and convicted on charges of embezzlement and election-law violations.
Mr. Moon used his presidential staff to help arrange his son-in-law’s employment and his relocation from South Korea to Thailand, Jeonju prosecutors said.
