Park Geun-hye: South Korea’s top court holds 20-year prison sentence for former leader

Park Geun-hye: South Korea’s top court holds 20-year prison sentence for former leader

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Park was initially sentenced to 24 years in prison after being found guilty on various charges of abuse of power, bribery and coercion. These charges were related to a case of mass-influenced trafficking that sparked widespread protests, involved some of the country’s most powerful figures and led to her resignation from office in 2017.

Park’s sentence in 2018 was reduced to 20 years last July after a retrial. Prosecutors appealed the sentence and asked for a heavier sentence, but on Thursday, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld Park’s 20-year sentence, according to a court press release.

The Supreme Court is South Korea’s highest court, which means Thursday’s decision is expected to end Park’s legal remedies to appeal his sentence.

Park will have to serve 22 years behind bars – she could face an additional two-year sentence for a 2018 conviction for meddling in nominating candidates for the Saenuri Party, a conservative political party previously led by her.

“This is the conclusion of a case of state corruption following the popular candlelight revolution, impeachment by the Assembly and a judicial decision. It is a manifestation of the constitutional spirit of our democratic republic and means the advance and maturity of Korean democracy. “South Korea’s President Blue House said in a statement Thursday. “We must make sure that we take this unfortunate event – the arrest of the ex-president – as a historical lesson and avoid repeating it.”

South Korea’s corruption scandal

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

But her term was marked by controversy, and in 2017 she became the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forcibly removed after the country’s Constitutional Court held a parliamentary vote to challenge her.

The vote came after millions of South Koreans took to the streets for a period of several months to demand Park’s expulsion, after revelations emerged about the undue influence exerted by his adviser and confidant, Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a leader of sect.

Shortly after Park was removed from office, she was arrested and put on trial for soliciting bribes from major conglomerates in the country, including Samsung. In 2018, she went on trial on different charges for having received illicit 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 was fined $ 16.6 million.
In 2017, Samsung boss 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 suffered a retrial of that charge and a verdict is expected next week. In a related case, he was indicted last year for a controversial 2015 merger that helped him strengthen control of the company.

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

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