Published : Jan. 30, 2017 - 19:02
A Danish court decided on Monday to extend the detainment of the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the center of a massive corruption scandal in South Korea.
Chung Yoo-ra has been in the custody of Danish authorities since she was arrested in this northern city of Aalborg earlier this year for illegal stay.
She is under suspicion of receiving favors from a college in Seoul during the admissions process and on tests by taking advantage of her mother's ties to the president.
Choi Soon-sil`s daughter Chung Yoo-ra (Yonhap)
The court decided to further detain Chung until Feb. 22 to review whether to accept the extradition request made by South Korea special prosecutors.
Seoul prosecutors looking into the alleged corruption scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her friend Choi earlier asked local authorities to extradite Chung.
The 21-year-old South Korean national has so far showed no signs of voluntarily coming back home to face a probe.
The Seoul government recently requested that Chung turn in her passport but she did not comply by the given deadline. The government automatically nullified her passport.
Experts say that with the passport nullification, pressure will likely grow for Chung to return home.
The government said that it plans to notify local authorities and Interpol of its latest decision in order to invalidate Chung's passport immediately.
Chung's mother Choi is suspected of meddling in state affairs and influence peddling. The president is also accused of conspiring with Choi.
The scandal led to Park's impeachment by parliament last month and implicated numerous officials at the top levels of government and business. (Yonhap)