SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 20-year prison sentence for former President Park Geun-hye for bribery and other crimes as it put an end to a historic case of corruption that meant a shocking fall of grace for the country’s first female leader and conservative icon.
The sentence means that Park, who was removed from office and arrested in 2017, could serve 22 years behind bars, following an independent conviction for illegally getting involved in his party’s candidacies before the parliamentary elections of the 2016.
But the end of her prison term also makes her eligible for a special presidential pardon, a possibility that is approaching as the country’s deeply divided electorate approaches the upcoming March 2022 presidential election.
President Moon Jae-in, a Liberal who won the by-elections after Park’s ouster, has not yet directly addressed the possibility of releasing his predecessor. Moon has recently seen its approval ratings plummet to new lows due to economic problems, political scandals and rising coronavirus infections.
Many Conservative politicians have called for Moon to release Park and another convicted former president, Lee Myung-bak, who is serving a 17-year term for his own allegations of corruption. At least one prominent member of Moon’s Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yon, has endorsed the idea of pardoning former presidents as a gesture of “national unity.”
Park, 68, has described herself as a victim of political revenge. Since October 2017 he has refused to attend his trials and did not attend Thursday’s sentencing. His lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.
The fall of Park and Lee Myung-bak extended the streak of South Korean presidencies for decades, fueling criticism that the country puts too much power on which it is easily abused and often passes into the hands of leaders. elected.
Almost all former presidents, or members of his family and aides, have been embroiled in scandals near the end of his term or after leaving office.
A president, Park’s dictatorial father, Park Chung-hee, was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979. Another former president, Roh Moo-hyun, a longtime friend and political mentor of Moon, jumped to death in 2009 amid allegations that his relatives took bribes from a businessman during his presidency.
Moon spokesman Kang Min-seok said the ruling on Park Geun-hye marked the “maturation and growth” of South Korea’s democracy, but added that the imprisonment of a former president for crimes is a story. “unfortunate” that it should not be repeated. . Presidential officials avoided specific answers when asked about the possibility of Moon forgiving Park and Lee.
Shin Young-dae, a Democratic Party spokesman, demanded that Park apologize for the “irresistible shame” it left in the country’s history.
Park was convicted of collaborating with longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil for taking millions of dollars in bribes and extortion money from some of the country’s leading business groups, including Samsung, while he was in charge from 2013 to 2016.
She was also accused of illegally accepting monthly funds from her spy bosses who deviate from the agency’s budget.
After weeks of protests by millions of people, Park was indicted by lawmakers in December 2016 and officially removed from office in March 2017 after the Constitutional Court upheld his dismissal.
It was not immediately known how Thursday’s ruling would affect the legal saga of billionaire Samsung Jae-yong. Samsung Electronics vice president, 52, faces sentencing in Seoul High Court next week in a new indictment trial that bribed Park and Choi to win government support for a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that helped strengthen their control. about the largest business group in the country.
Prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence for Lee, who has been charged separately with charges of stock price manipulation, breach of trust and audit breaches related to the merger. Lee’s lawyers have portrayed him as a victim of abuse of presidential power and described the 2015 deal as part of a “normal business activity.”
Choi is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence.
Park originally faced a prison sentence of more than 30 years before in 2019 the Supreme Court sent the cases to a lower court.
The Seoul High Court in 2018 had sentenced her to 25 years in prison after reviewing her jointly for bribery, extortion, abuse of power and other convictions.
But the Supreme Court, in October 2019, ordered the Seoul High Court to deal with Park’s bribery charge separately from the other charges, based on a law that requires it. for cases involving a president or other elected officials, even when the alleged crimes are committed jointly.
The high court handed Park a five-year term on the charges of espionage funds in July 2019, but the Supreme Court also ordered a retrial in November and ordered the lower court to apply, from more broadly, the accusation of causing losses in state funds. .
Prosecutors appealed after the Seoul court handed Park a 20-year term in July last year after the two cases merged.
If Park fully serves his sentence, he will be released in 2039 at the age of 87.