Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak received a presidential pardon on Tuesday, thus shortening his 17-year prison sentence for corruption by fifteen years, the Minister of Justice announced.
Lee is on a list of more than 1,300 people granted special pardon "in view of broad national unity through reconciliation, tolerance and respect", Han Dong-hoon told reporters after a council ministers with President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The pardon takes effect Wednesday at midnight, and quashes the sentence, but not the conviction.
In office from 2008 to 2013, Lee, 81, has since 2018 been serving a 17-year sentence for corruption, embezzlement and bribery, although he has often been temporarily released for medical treatment.
He was not to be released before 2036. In June, his imprisonment was suspended by the courts, due to the deterioration of his state of health.
In August, the South Korean press raised the possibility of this clemency, a few months after Yoon Suk-yeol took office.
Born poor in Japan, imprisoned for a few months when he was a student for leading a rebellion against the normalization of relations between Korea and Japan, appointed head of a large construction company at the age of 35 before enter politics, mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006, Lee Myung-bak was president from 2008 to 2013.
First round of presidential pardons in August
He led the country through the global financial crisis and won PyeongChang's South Korean bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but was criticized by his opponents for undermining democratic standards and freedom of speech in the country. country.
In 2018, he was found guilty of creating slush funds worth tens of millions of dollars and accepting bribes from Samsung Electronics, in exchange for obtaining a presidential pardon for the group's CEO, Lee Kun-hee, then imprisoned for tax evasion and since deceased.
Last August, in his first round of presidential pardons, President Yoon Suk-yeol pardoned Lee Jae-yong, the son of Samsung Electronics executive Lee Kun-hee, who was sentenced in January 2021 to two years and half of jail.
In South Korea, heads of state often find themselves in prison once they leave power, often following a political change.
Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, both jailed for corruption and treason in the 1990s after leaving the highest state offices, were granted amnesty after spending around two years behind bars.
Park Geun-hye, the daughter of military dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea between 1961 and 1979, was pardoned last year while serving a 20-year prison sentence for corruption and abuse of to be able to.
This corruption scandal ended his presidency in 2017.
