AKIPRESS.COM - Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president, was sentenced to 24-years in prison after being found guilty of crimes that exposed deep links between politics and the nation’s corporate giants, Bloomberg reported.
A panel of three judges at the Seoul Central District Court found the former leader guilty of most of a dozen charges ranging from bribery to coercion, abuse of power and the leaking of state secrets. The sentence was more lenient than the 30 years sought by prosecutors. Park can now appeal to a higher court.
Park, 66, who was impeached last year over an influence peddling scandal that led to protests by hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of the capital, didn’t show up at court. She denied most of the allegations, head judge Kim Se-yoon said.
President Moon Jae-in came to office last year on a drive to wipe out what he calls “deep-rooted evil” across society. Park’s case has again highlighted the murky ties between government and business as well as the deep political divide between liberals and conservatives. Both of these issues could be seen in the angry public response when de facto Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee was freed from prison after his graft conviction was suspended.