(VOVworld) - South Korean prosecutors said Sunday that President Park Geun-hye is suspected of having conspired with her longtime confidante and former aides, indicating the scandal-hit president will be seen as a criminal suspect in a future investigation.

President Park has a complicity "to a significant extent" with the three criminal suspects in multiple offenses, the head of a special investigative unit in the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in charge of the case told a televised press conference to announce its interim investigation results.

Choi Soon-sil, Park's decades-long friend, was indicted by prosecutors for abuse of power, coercion, attempted coercer and attempted fraud. Ahn Jong-beom, former senior presidential secretary on policy coordination, was charged for abuse of power, coercer and attempted coercion.

Choi is suspected of asking President Park to order Ahn to pressure 53 conglomerates into donating tens of millions of US dollars to two nonprofit foundations presumably controlled by Choi.