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.
Mr. Lee, who was serving a prison term stemming from his previous corruption charges, was also indicted on an additional bribery charge on Thursday.
The former son-in-law and Mr. Moon’s daughter were not indicted.
Mr. Moon’s lawyers and his allies in the Democratic Party disputed the charge in a statement on Thursday, saying there was no legal basis for the bribery accusation because the money the son-in-law received was legitimate compensation for his work.
Senior prosecutors appointed by Mr. Yoon had engineered the “political indictment” of Mr. Moon to help dilute the public attention focused on Mr. Yoon as he faces trial on an insurrection charge, they said.
“They cannot make the crime of Yoon Suk Yeol and his clique disappear by harassing and humiliating President Moon Jae-in,” the statement added.
Although Mr. Yoon served as a prosecutor-general under Mr. Moon, they later became sworn political enemies.
Mr. Moon’s indictment is part of a familiar pattern in South Korea, where presidents or their relatives have often been ensnared by investigations before or after they left office. That includes four of the most recent former presidents who governed the country over the past two decades. Roh Moo-hyun killed himself in 2009 while being investigated for possible corruption. Two — Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye — ended up in prison for corruption. And Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from presidency on April 4, is standing trial on the charge of committing insurrection when he sent military troops into the National Assembly during his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.
These criminal investigations have contributed to the deepening political polarization in South Korea, as presidents from both the liberal and conservative camps have been targeted and, in turn, have called the prosecutions political revenge engineered by their enemies once they took power.
Under Mr. Yoon, a conservative, Mr. Moon and his former aides have faced a series of criminal investigations. In February, a court found four former national security aides to Mr. Moon guilty of abusing their official power. But their prison terms were suspended as the court indicated that it considered the criminal charges to be politically motivated by the Yoon administration.
Prosecutors launched an investigation into Mr. Moon’s son-in-law near the end of his term. They said that when they have tried to summon Mr. Moon in recent months, he refused to present himself for questioning or to answer questions they sent him by mail.
Mr. Moon is best known for his efforts to build political reconciliation with North Korea. He met with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and helped mediate the summit meeting between Mr. Kim and President Donald J. Trump in 2018. He was criticized for failing to curb soaring housing prices but was credited for his country’s largely successful battle against the pandemic.
After leaving office, Mr. Moon moved to a new residence built in Yangsan in the southeast of South Korea. He has posted a series of comments on his Facebook account criticizing Mr. Yoon and his policies, especially after the failed imposition of martial law.
