Some key moments in Park’s life

1963: Park moves to Seoul’s presidential Blue House, two years after her father Park Chung-hee took power in a coup.

1974: Park’s mother is fatally shot by an ethnic Korean from Japan, claiming orders from then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, while her husband was making a speech in Seoul. Park Geun-hye returns from Paris, where she had been studying, to serve as acting first lady.

1979: Park Chung-hee is assassinated by his spy chief during a late-night drinking party.

1998: After years of avoiding the public eye, Park enters politics and wins a parliamentary seat amid public nostalgia.

2006: Park, the leader of the main conservative opposition party, is attacked by a man wielding a box cutter while she was campaigning for upcoming elections. She is given 60 stitches on an 11-centimetre gash on her face.

2012: Park wins the presidency by defeating her main liberal rival, Moon Jae-in.

2016: Media report suspicions that a senior Park aide pressured companies into giving money to non-profit organisations controlled by Choi Soon-sil, Park’s friend of 40 years. Park acknowledges her ties with Choi, but denies breaking the law. Prosecutors indicts Choi in November. Parliament impeaches Park in December.

March 2017: The Constitutional Court votes to uphold the impeachment and remove Park from office, which lifts her immunity from prosecution. Prosecutors question her. Ten days later, she is arrested.

April 2017: Park is indicted by prosecutors on multiple charges, including abuse of power, extortion, bribery and leaking state secrets.

May 2017: Park’s rival, Moon, wins a presidential by-election. Weeks later, Park, in handcuffs, is brought to the Seoul court for the opening of her criminal trial.

February 13: The court sentences Choi to 20 years in prison. April 6: The court sentences Park to 24 years in prison.