The government of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday said it would grant a special pardon to former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for a range of corruption crimes.
The South Korean Ministry of Justice said in a statement that Lee is among 1,373 convicts who are to be pardoned today.
It said it included some politicians, such as Lee, as part of efforts to promote a national unity.
Photo: Reuters
Lee, 81, was temporarily released from prison in June over health concerns.
He had been convicted of taking bribes from big businesses including Samsung, embezzling funds from a company that he owned, and other corruption-related crimes before and during his presidency from 2008 to 2013.
He was South Korea’s first president with a business background and once symbolized the country’s economic rise.
He began his business career with an entry-level job at Hyundai Group’s construction arm in the mid-1960s, before he rose to CEO of 10 companies under Hyundai Group and led the group’s rapid rise at a time when South Korea’s economy grew explosively from the rubble of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Lee’s corruption case erupted after his successor and fellow conservative Park Geun-hye was ousted and sent to jail over a separate 2016-2017 corruption scandal. The back-to-back scandals deeply hurt conservatives in South Korea and deepened a national divide.
Park, who was serving a lengthy prison term, was pardoned in December last year, when South Korea was governed by Yoon’s liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in.
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