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The Justice Department says the park’s pardon is aimed at promoting national unity in the face of the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
South Korea says it will grant a special pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence for some corruption charges.
The Justice Ministry said on Friday that the Park’s pardon was aimed at promoting national unity in the face of the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
He was on a list of people receiving special amnesty and was pardoned “from a national unity perspective,” Justice Minister Park Beom-kye later told reporters after the ministry’s announcement.
The news agency Yonhap news agency said the former president’s pardon was discussed at a two-day meeting of the ministry’s amnesty review committee earlier this week.
He said the health factor was “a very important criterion” in the amnesty decision.
Park was arrested and sent to prison in 2017 after his stay he was fired for months after a corruption scandal that sparked street protests.
Park is the daughter of former authoritarian President Chung-hee.
She was elected the first woman president of South Korea.
A 69-year-old man was serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery and abuse of power, and two years later for violating election laws.
In January, the country’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence, ending the court proceedings and raising the possibility of a pardon for the first time.
The corruption scandal exposed the dark links between South Korea’s big business and politics, with Parki and his close friend Choi Soon-sil accusing conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, of taking bribes in exchange for a preferential deal.
The public backlash against Parks and his Conservative party helped push the left-wing Moon Jae-in to power.
Park has pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he never accepted the money. The charges are said to have been invented by a conservative government against the Roh administration as part of political revenge.
Lee Myung-bak, who was also imprisoned in front of the park, was not pardoned. He is serving a 17-year prison sentence for malice and bribery.
The decision led many supporters and politicians of the main opposition Conservative People Power party to pardon the Park before the March 2022 presidential election.
Lee Jae-myung, the flag bearer of the Democratic Party of the Moon in the government, and Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate for People’s Power, have been on the sidelines in recent polls.
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