Asia

Former South Korean President Park, who was imprisoned for corruption, has been pardoned.

Former President Park Geun-hye, who is serving a lengthy jail sentence for bribery and other offenses, will be granted a special pardon by the South Korean government on Friday.

Former President Park Geun-hye, who is serving a lengthy jail sentence for bribery and other offenses, will be granted a special pardon by the South Korean government on Friday.

Park’s pardon, according to the Justice Ministry, is aimed at overcoming previous divisions and building national unity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic’s challenges.

According to the ministry, Park, who is 69 years old, is one of 3,094 persons who will be pardoned on December 31.

“By overcoming the traumas of the past, we can progress into a new era.” “Rather than battling against each other while being fixated with the past, it’s time to courageously bring together all of our strengths for the future,” President Moon Jae-in said in a statement.

“In the instance of former President Park, we took into account the fact that her health had deteriorated significantly after nearly five years in prison,” he explained.

After being dismissed from office due to a corruption scandal that sparked months of street protests, Park was arrested and sentenced to prison in 2017. Her demise was a dramatic reversal of fortune for the country’s first female president and a conservative idol.

The Supreme Court of South Korea upheld her 20-year sentence in January. Because she was convicted of tampering in her party’s nominations before of the 2016 parliamentary elections, she faced a total sentence of 22 years in prison.

Park has stated that she is a victim of political retaliation. Since October 2017, she has refused to attend her trials.

Park is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the late authoritarian president of South Korea. She was elected in late 2012 on a wave of conservative popularity, hailing her father as a hero who, despite his suppression of civil rights, lifted the country out of poverty.

In December 2016, parliament impeached her, and she was formally ousted from office in March 2017 after the Constitutional Court affirmed the impeachment.

While she was in government, she was accused of conspiring with her longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, to accept millions of dollars in bribes and extortion money from some of the country’s top corporations, including Samsung.

Moon Jae-in, a liberal, was elected in an extraordinary by-election after she was deposed.

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