Ex-leader found guilty
Ousted South Korean president gets 24 years in prison for corruption.
SEOUL — A South Korean court on Friday sentenced impeached former president Park Geun-hye to 24 years in jail and fined her 18 billion won ($17 million) over a series of corruption counts.
Park, who was removed from office last March over an influence-peddling scandal involving her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, was convicted of 16 corruption counts including bribery, abuse of power and coercion.
Prosecutors had charged Park with 18 counts, seeking a 30-year jail sentence with a fine of 118.5 billion won.
Seoul Central District Court delivered a verdict of guilty, which was broadcast live nationwide. Park did not appear in the courtroom in protest at the live broadcasting of her trial.
But the court said it allowed live broadcasting due to the trial’s significance, its historical meaning and the people’s right to know.
The ousted president has not shown up at any court hearing since last October to protest against her extended detention for six more months.
“It’s inevitable that the defendant should be held strictly responsible for her crimes, if only to prevent the unfortunate event of a president abusing the power granted by the people and throwing state affairs into chaos from happening again,” Chief Judge Kim Se-yun said.
Three weeks after her impeachment last March, Park was taken into custody at a detention center outside of Seoul.
The country’s first female leader, who was also the first president to be impeached while in office, is required to request a retrial within a week if she disagrees with the ruling.
Choi, who was at the center of the corruption scandal, was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison.
Samsung Electronics Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the heir apparent and the only son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was freed by the appeals court in February with a sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison, suspended for four years.
The court found Park guilty of collusion with Choi to abuse her presidential power and coerce local conglomerates, including Samsung and retail giant Lotte, to donate tens of millions of US dollars to nonprofit foundations which the court said Choi actually controlled.
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin was put under court custody in February with a sentence of two-and-ahalf years in jail for bribery.
Park is the daughter of former president Park Chunghee, who spearheaded South Korea’s rapid economic rise in the 1960s and 1970s.
During her father’s 18-year rule, Park Geun-hye served as first lady after her mother was killed in an assassination attempt targeting her father in 1974. She left the presidential mansion in 1979 after her father was gunned down by his own intelligence chief during a late-night drinking party.