Choi Soon-sil, the longtime confidante of former President Park Geun-hye, has refused to testify at the trial of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong who has been charged with providing bribes to the former president and Choi.
 
At the trial held at the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday, Choi said she was initially planning to give a full testimony but confusion was caused by her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, giving testimony first a few weeks ago.
 
Choi complained about the special counsel investigators not replying to her question about where they had kept her daughter for seven hours before she had testified at Lee’s trial earlier on July 12th. Choi then said that if her daughter had in fact appeared in the trial willingly, the special prosecutors had broken the law by pushing her daughter to testify in court.
 
When the special prosecutors sought to ask questions about allegations that she received bribes from Samsung, Choi refused to testify, saying that she does not admit the allegations against her.
 
When asked by the judge why she appeared in court if she wasn’t going to testify, Choi simply replied that she appeared because she was told to do so.
 
On the judge’s question whether she will not give testimony to any question, Choi said she cannot trust the special prosecutors and added that she is in a state of panic after receiving multiple threats.