Business Standard

South Korea to pardon former leader Myung-bak Lee for corruption crimes

The South Korean govt of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday it will grant a special pardon to ex-President Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to a 17-year prison term for a range of corruption crimes

South Korea’s president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol attends a ceremony at the National Assembly Library in Seoul on March 10, 2022. (Song Kyung-seok/Pool Photo via AP)

South Korea’s president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol (Photo via AP)

AP Seoul

The South Korean government of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday it will grant a special pardon to ex-President Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to a 17-year prison term for a range of corruption crimes.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement that Lee is among 1,373 convicts who will be pardoned Wednesday. It said it has decided to include some politicians, such as Lee, as part of efforts to promote a national unity.

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Lee, 81, was released from prison temporarily in June over health concerns.

The CEO-turned-conservative hero 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 symbolised 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 1950-53 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 2016-17 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 2021, when South Korea was governed by Yoon's liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Dec 27 2022 | 12:36 PM IST

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