24th December, 2021
South Korea’s Justice Ministry said on Friday that former President Park Geun-hye, who is imprisoned over corruption charges, has been pardoned.
She was pardoned from “a perspective of national unity”, Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told reporters following the ministry’s announcement.
Yonhap news agency quoted the justice minister as saying that the former president’s pardon was discussed during a two-day meeting of the ministry’s amnesty review committee earlier this week.
He said the health factor “was a very important criterion” in the amnesty decision.
Park was arrested and sent to prison in 2017, after being removed from office following a corruption scandal that prompted months of street protests.
Park is the daughter of late authoritarian President Park Chung-hee.
She was elected as South Korea’s first female president.
The 69-year-old Park was serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery and abuse of power, with another two years after that for election law violations.
In January, the country’s top court upheld the sentence, bringing an end to the legal process and for the first time raising the possibility of a pardon.
The corruption scandal exposed shady links between big businesses and politics in South Korea, with Park and her close friend Choi Soon-sil accused of taking bribes from conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, in exchange for preferential treatment.