According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean government announced the list of new year amnesty on the 24th, and 3,094 people, including former President Park Geun-hye and former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook, will be granted amnesty, commutation or reinstatement on the 31st. The South Korean government said the amnesty aims to get rid of the unfortunate history, achieve universal unity, and then fight the epidemic and take a new step towards the future.
According to reports, South Korean Minister of Justice Park Fan-jae said at a press conference on the same day that President Moon Jae-in discussed pardoning Park Geun-hye out of consideration for national reconciliation and the resolution of contradictions. Park Geun-hye's deteriorating health is also one of the important determinants.
In January, Ms. Park was sentenced to 20 years in prison, fined 18 billion won (96.72 million yuan), recovered 3.5 billion won in stolen money, and detained at the Seoul Detention Center for her cronies interfering in politics and accepting special funding from the National Intelligence Agency. Ms. Park was also sentenced to two years in prison at the end of November 2018 on suspicion of interfering in the internal push of the New World Party (the predecessor of the National Forces). Han Was sentenced to two years in prison in 2015 and recovered 883 million won in 2015 on suspicion of collecting 900 million won of illegal funds, and was released from prison in August 2017.
Lee Myung-bak, who is also a former president, was not included in the pardon list. According to the report, Park Fan-jae said that Lee Myung-bak's situation is different from Park Geun-hye's, and the government should also take into account the national sentiment. Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 17 years in prison and fined 13 billion won last October for allegedly taking huge bribes from Samsung and others and embezzling public funds from das, an auto parts company he actually controls.
Author: Wu Yuanchun
Source: World Wide Web