South Korean President Lee Myung-bak yesterday pardoned the brother of his late predecessor in a special amnesty affecting some 2,500 convicts, including politicians and business leaders.
A total of 2,493 convicts will be pardoned, reinstated, or have their sentences commuted in the pardon which aims to boost “national unity” during celebrations of the 65th anniversary of liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
They include Roh Gun-pyeong, elder brother of late former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, who was convicted of taking bribes from a businessman.
The former president was not implicated in the case, but killed himself in May last year after being questioned about separate payments to his family.
Lee also pardoned convicted businessmen, including Lee Hak-soo, former vice chairman of Samsung Electronics who is still considered chairman Lee Kun-hee’s right-hand man, and Dongbu Group chairman Kim Jun-ki.
Most of the convicted businessmen are already free after receiving suspended jail terms.
The largest group of beneficiaries from the pardons were 2,375 illegal campaigners, convicted of violating election laws in the 2006 local elections and the 2007 presidential election.
Also included were four foreigners who were victims of spouse abuse or have children to take care of.
Among the four was a 20-year-old Cambodian woman who served 17 months of her 48-month jail term for killing her husband, who beat her severely under the influence of alcohol while she was pregnant with their first child.
Sex offenders were excluded from the list.
South Korea has a history of pardoning tycoons, despite criticism that the government is too lenient on the rich.
A year ago, Lee pardoned business leaders such as Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo and SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS