Park Geun-hye: South Korea’s highest court upholds 20 years in prison for former leader

by

Park was initially sentenced to 24 years in prison after being found guilty of multiple abuse of power, bribery and coercion. Those allegations related to a massive case of influence that sparked widespread protests involving some of the country’s most powerful figures and her removal from office in 2017.

Park’s 2018 sentence was reduced to 20 years after a retrial last July. Prosecutors appealed that sentence, asking for a more severe sentence, but on Thursday the South Korean Supreme Court upheld Park’s 20-year sentence, according to a court press release.

The Supreme Court is South Korea’s highest court, meaning Thursday’s decision is expected to mark the end of Park’s legal options to appeal her sentence.

Park will have to sit behind bars for 22 years – she is facing an additional two-year sentence for a 2018 conviction for meddling in the nomination of candidates for the Saenuri Party, a conservative political party previously led by her.

“This is the conclusion of a state corruption affair that follows the people’s candlelight revolution, Assembly impeachment and a court ruling. It is an expression of the constitutional spirit of our democratic republic and signifies the progress and maturity of Korean democracy,” South Korea’s president Blue House said in a statement Thursday. “We need to make sure that we consider this unfortunate event – the imprisonment of the former president – as a historical lesson and not repeat it.”

Corruption scandal in South Korea

Park Geun-hye, daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, became South Korea’s first female president when she came to power in 2013.

But her tenure was marred by controversy, and in 2017 she became the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forcibly removed from office after the country’s Constitutional Court sanctioned a parliamentary vote to oust her.

That vote came after millions of South Koreans took to the streets for several months to demand Park’s expulsion, after revelations emerged about the undue influence of her advisor and confidant, Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a cult leader. .

Shortly after Park was stripped of her office, she was arrested and tried for seeking bribes from major conglomerates in the country, including Samsung. In 2018, she was tried on separate charges that she had received illegal funds from the National Intelligence Service.
Several others were also involved in the scandal. In 2018, Park’s confidant Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison on 18 charges, including abuse of power, coercion, fraud and bribery, and fined $ 16.6 million.
In 2017, Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong was found guilty of bribery and other corruption charges and sentenced to five years in prison. In 2018, a higher court reduced his sentence and suspended it for four years, although he has since undergone a retrial and a verdict is expected next week. In a related case, he was charged last year with a controversial merger in 2015 that helped tighten control of the company.

CNN’s Paula Hancocks, Yoonjung Seo and James Griffiths contributed to this report.

.Source