South Korean president's brother arrested over bribery charges Lee Sang-deuk was taken into custody after the Seoul Central District Court approved a request for his arrest the previous day. Lee, who was formerly a politician with the ruling Grand National Party, is alleged to have accepted 600 million Won (£337,545) from the heads of two struggling savings banks between 2007 and 2011. In return, prosecutors allege, Lee helped the Solomon Savings Bank and Mirae Savings Bank avoid undergoing regulatory audits that would have brought the institutions' problems to light. "Lee's crimes have been ascertained and there is a reasonable concern that the suspect might attempt to destroy evidence, considering his status and political influence," Park Byoung-sam, a judge at the Seoul court, was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency. The arrest of his brother is the latest embarrassment to President Lee, whose final two-year term ends in February. Already seen as a lame-duck leader who is seeing out the closing days of his administration, at least two of his closest colleagues have also been implicated in corruption scandals. In addition, Lee's domestic and foreign policies have courted controversy, from his hard-line stance towards neighbouring North Korea and an effort to sign a defence treaty with Japan that was aborted due to strong pressure from a population that remains hostile to its former colonial master. Lee Sang-deuk, 76, was credited with being a mentor to his brother while in power but has now become the first brother of a sitting president to be arrested in modern Korean history. Immediately after his arrest, Lee was transferred to the Seoul Detention Centre. People who had lost their savings in the banking scandal threw eggs at Lee and one of them seized him by the lapel of his jacket. Responding to reporters' questions about what he would say to his brother, Lee said, "I'm sorry."