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Ex-President Park Geun-hye in court
Photo: KIM HONG-JI / REUTERS
Park Geun-hye, the ex-president of South Korea sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, has been pardoned.
Justice Minister Park Beom-kye said the former head of state was on a list of people to receive a "special amnesty" and that she had been pardoned from "a perspective of national unity".
In 2017, Park was removed from office on allegations of corruption.
The 69-year-old E-President has been to the hospital several times this year.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that Park's poor health played a role in deciding on the pardon.
Bribes from Samsung
Park and her close friend Choi Soon-sil were accused in 2017 of taking bribes from corporations like Samsung.
In addition, Park, who was elected South Korea's first head of state in 2013, is said to have passed on secret documents, blacklisted critical artists and sacked officials who opposed her.
When the allegations became known, thousands of people took to the streets against the head of state and her conservative party.
Left-wing Moon Jae-in came to power as a result of the corruption scandal.
In addition to the 20 years imprisonment for corruption and abuse of power, Park was also sentenced to two years in prison for violating the electoral law.
She was also sentenced to a large fine.
Because she had not paid the fine of the equivalent of 16 million euros, the public prosecutor's office confiscated the former president's property.
Trapped in the "Blue House"
In January her successor Moon, whose term of office ends next March, had ruled out a pardon for Park.
The conviction of a former president was a "historical lesson," argued Moon's office at the time.
South Korea is known for the fact that former heads of state are imprisoned in the so-called »Blue House« after a change of power.
Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, who were imprisoned for corruption and treason in the 1990s, were each pardoned by their successors after about two years.
Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide in 2009 after being interrogated on charges of bribery.
His successor Lee Myung-bak is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption.
AFP / rai
