The recently-impeached South Korea President Guen-Hye Park [BBC profile] was arrested Friday on charges of bribery, coercion, abuse of power, and leaking government secrets. Park may be facing an additional nine other charges and can be held behind bars for up to 20 days during the course of the investigation. A Seoul district court issued the warrant for the arrest early morning on Friday after a nine-hour warrant request hearing [NPR report] —the longest warrant request hearing in South Korea’s history. Judge Bu-young Kang issued the warrant acknowledging the prosecution’s legitimate concerns over destruction of evidence and rejecting as inadequate [Reuters report] the defense’s assurance that Park was not a flight risk. Park has been taken to a detention center outside Seoul, where Samsung’s would-be head Jae-Young Lee [Forbes profile] is also being held in connection with matters relating to the same corruption scandal. Park may face more than 10 years in prison if convicted.

This is the latest development in a scandal that has grown to encompass numerous South Korean political and corporate leaders. Earlier this month South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld [JURIST report] parliament’s decision to impeach [JURIST report] Park over a scandal related to government bribes paid by Samsung. South Korean lawmakers voted 234-56 to impeach Park in December. In February Samsung’s would-be head Lee was arrested [JURIST report] on charges of bribery and undue influence in connection with the scandal. Five Samsung executives denied the charges [JURIST report] of bribery, embezzlement and corruption that were leveled against them in connection with Park. Two weeks ago the Seoul Central District Court said that it reassigned Lee’s bribery case [JURIST report] to a new judge, after reports surfaced the same week concerning the previous judge’s connection to a woman Lee is accused of bribing. In February South Korea’s special prosecutor indicted [JURIST report] former culture minister Yoon-sun Cho [official profile] and former presidential chief of staff Ki-choon Kim on charges of coercion, abuse of power and perjury connected to creation of a blacklist of opposition artists critical to Park.