FORMER SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT PARK GEUN - HYE JAILED FOR 24 YEARS OVER CORRUPTION SCANDAL ALLEGED BRIBERY.SHE WAS IMPEACHED IN MARCH 2017 FOLLOWING MASS PROTESTS.
February 10, 2019 at 3:13 pm,
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Park
Geun-Hye: 1952; was the current President of South Korea. She was the
first woman to be elected to that position and South Korea’s first woman
head of state in modern history. Prior to her presidency, she was the
chairwoman of the conservative
Grand National Party and a member of the Korean National Assembly. She
was considered to be one of the most influential politicians in Korea
since the presidencies of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung.
Park
Geun-hye was impeached by parliament in December 2016 after mass
demonstrations - fuelled by economic and social frustrations - demanding
her removal over a scandal centred on Choi, her friend of 40 years, and implicating some of the country’s top businessmen.
South Korea’s disgraced former president Park Geun-hye was jailed for 24 years Friday for corruption, closing out a dramatic fall from grace for the country’s first woman leader who became a figure of public fury and ridicule.She was found guilty on charges of bribery, coercion and abuse of power, and ordered to pay a fine of 18 billion won ($17 million).“The amount of bribery the accused received or demanded in collaboration with Choi amounts to more than 23 billion won,” Judge Kim Se-Yoon said, referring to Park’s secret confidante and long-time friend Choi Soon-sil.Park Geun-Hye: 1952; was President of South Korea. She was the first woman to be elected to that position and South Korea’s first woman head of state in modern history. Prior to her presidency, she was the chairwoman of the conservative Grand National Party and a member of the Korean National Assembly. She was considered to be one of the most influential politicians in Korea since the presidencies of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung.The ousted president faces charges including bribery, abusing state power and leaking state secrets.Police escorted Park, in handcuffs with her eyes downcast, into court for her first public appearance since she was jailed on March 31 based on the same corruption allegations that led to her removal from office.In her first appearance in public since her arrest in March 2017, she arrived at court handcuffed in a prison van.The maximum sentence for corruption in South Korea is life.Ms Park is accused of colluding with her friend, Choi Soon-sil, to extort money from some of South Korea’s biggest companies, including Samsung, in return for political favours.Ms Choi Soon-sil, who is also facing charges, sat alongside Ms Park at the opening of the trial. She also denies wrongdoing.As the trial opened in Seoul, the ex-president’s lawyers said there was “no reason for President Park to force companies to donate money which she was unable to use for herself”.At the start of the trial which will determine whether she completes a transition from the presidential palace to a prison cell, Park Geun-hye was asked what her occupation was. She replied “unemployed”.She faced months of trying to persuade the judges that she didn’t pressure companies into giving millions of dollars to the life-long friend who sits alongside her in court number 417, the two separated only by a lawyer. They did not greet each with either a word or even a glance.Ms Park wore a black suit rather than her prison garb. On her chest, worn like a broach: a badge with the number 503 her prison number. She had a hairclip provided by the prison because her normal hairpins were taken away as potentially dangerous.Ms Park is facing a total of 18 charges, with the charge sheet running to about 120,000 pages, South Korean media report.Prosecutors say she allowed Ms Choi to use her presidential connections to pressure companies to give money to a foundation she established, earning them tens of millions of dollars.In exchange, the companies would receive favourable treatment from the government, it is alleged.Ms Park is also accused of leaking state secrets by giving Ms Choi access to her work including asking her to edit her speeches and of running a blacklist of media figures who were to be barred from receiving state support because they had been critical of her government.Ms Park is the third South Korean leader on trial for corruption but the first democratically elected one.The two previous cases involved former military dictators imprisoned on corruption in the 1990s.Ms Park’s hearing takes place in the very same court room as the previous trials.Dozens of people have now been investigated or arrested in connection with the scandal. All have maintained their innocence.Ms Choi, who also denies wrongdoing, has been on trial since December, while her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra alleged to have received help getting a university placement was arrested in Denmark in January.The acting head of Samsung Group, Lee Jae-Yong, and four other Samsung executive are on trial for allegedly giving bribes to Ms Park and Ms Choi in exchange for government support for a controversial merger.Former health minister Moon Hyung-pyo and the chief investment officer of the National Pension Service (NPS) Hong Wan-seon are on trial for allegedly pressuring the NPS to accept the merger.And two plastic surgeons who treated the image-conscious former president including one who injected her with human placenta extracts were convicted of lying about having treated her.
Former
President Park Geun-hye stared straight ahead in court and denied that
she engaged in bribery and leaking government secrets at the start of a
criminal trial that could send South Korea’s first female leader to
prison for life if convicted.Police
escorted Park, in handcuffs with her eyes downcast, into court for her
first public appearance since she was jailed on March 31 2017 based on
the same corruption allegations that led to her removal from office.
Cameras flashed as Park emerged from a bus, her inmate number 503 attached to her dark-colored jacket, and walked into the Seoul Central District Court. Her hands were then un-cuffed, and she entered the courtroom and sat before a three-judge panel while a throng of journalists captured images, often in extreme close up, of her somber face.When Judge Kim Se-yun asked Park, “What is your occupation?” she replied: “I don’t have any occupation.”Her longtime confidante, and the woman she is accused of conspiring with, Choi Soon-sil, sat near Park. The two had been friends for four decades but did not acknowledge each other.Choi sobbed as she answered questions about her address and occupation. But Park stared straight ahead as prosecutors read out the charges.“The accused Park Guen-hye, in collusion with her friend Choi Soon-sil, let Choi, who had no official position, intervene in state affairs … and they abused power and pressured business companies to offer bribes, thus taking private gains,” said senior prosecutor Lee Won-seok.Park’s lawyer, Yoo Young-ha, denied any wrongdoing. Asked whether she had anything to add, Park said in a calm, measured voice: “I will say afterward.”The judge also directly asked Park whether she denies all charges. “Yes,” Park replied, “I have the same position as the lawyers.”Choi, according to local media, said in court: “I am a sinner for forcing former President Park, who I have known and watched for 40 years, to appear in a courtroom.” She also said, “I hope this trial truly frees former President Park of fault and lets her be remembered as a president who lived a life devoted to her country.”“I am here to witness a new chapter of history being unfurled,” spectator Lee Jae-bong, 70, told a pool reporter. “I think Park must be punished thoroughly and never be pardoned so that such a bad thing may never happen again.”Park’s arrest came weeks after she was removed from office in a ruling by the Constitutional Court.Prosecutors boast of having “overflowing” evidence proving her involvement in criminal activities. They say Park colluded with Choi to take about $26 million in bribes from Samsung and was promised tens of millions of dollars more from Samsung and other large companies. Park also allegedly allowed her friend to manipulate state affairs from the shadows.A spokesman from the presidential Blue House said the office has no official statement to make on Park’s trial. New liberal President Moon Jae-in took office this month after winning a special election to replace Park.The scandal has led to the indictments of dozens of people, including former Cabinet ministers, senior presidential aides and billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong, who is accused of bribing Park and Choi in exchange for business favors. Lee faces a separate trial.Park has apologized for putting trust in Choi but denied breaking any laws and accuses her opponents of framing her. Choi also denies wrongdoing.The judges are expected to decide whether to try Park and Choi together or to split their cases. Park’s lawyers have alleged the combined hearings could create bias.Park has spent the past weeks locked in a small cell with a television, toilet, sink, table and mattress. She reportedly sees only a few visitors and her lawyers and mostly avoids television and newspapers. She avidly reads an English-Korean dictionary, according a report by a South Korean cable news channel, which cited an unnamed detention center source.Park, who won the 2012 presidential election over Moon by more than a million votes, enjoyed overwhelming support from conservatives who recalled her dictator father lifting the nation from poverty in the 1960-70s; critics recall his severe human rights abuses.As president, Park was criticized for what opponents saw as her imperial manner, her refusal to tolerate dissent, and her alleged mishandling of a 2014 ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren. The scandal involving Choi also destroyed Park’s carefully-crafted image as a selfless daughter of South Korea and inspired an angry public to push for her ouster and then elect Seoul’s first liberal government in a decade.Opinion surveys show a majority of South Koreans back the prosecution of Park, but she still has staunch supporters.About 150 people gathered near the court and reportedly waved national flags and raised placards that read, “Park is innocent! Release her immediately!” Some screamed and cried when a bus carrying Park passed by.The most damning allegation is that Park and Choi took bribes from Samsung, the country’s largest business group. Lee, Samsung’s de facto chief, is under suspicion of using millions in corporate funds to sponsor companies, sports organizations and nonprofit foundations controlled by Choi.In exchange, Park ensured government backing for a contentious merger of two Samsung companies in 2015 that was a key step in passing corporate control to Lee from his ailing father, prosecutors say.Prosecutor Hwang Woong-jae said that Park met Lee in July 2015 and “Park said she hoped the Samsung succession issue would be resolved smoothly under her government and asked Lee Jae-Yong to support the two foundations.”Lee has denied using the payments to win support for the 2015 deal, saying Samsung was just responding to Park’s requests to support culture and sports.Park’s lawyer, Yoo, said Park could not have benefited from the foundations because individuals could not freely take away money.Lee Jae-yong is far from being the only South Korean business tycoon to face a hefty jail term.The country’s powerful, family-run business empires chaebols have close political connections and a long history of their top figures being charged with bribery, embezzlement or tax evasion, among other offenses.But even if convicted, many see their sentences significantly reduced on appeal or suspended, leaving only a few actually spending time behind bars. Some have received presidential pardons in recognition of their “contribution to the national economy.”Such outcomes have driven increasing public frustration with cozy and corrupt ties between regulators and businesses in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.Here are a few examples of prominent court cases involving the country’s rich and powerful.SamsungLee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Group and Lee Jae-yong’s father, was embroiled in a huge corruption scandal in 2007 and accused of managing a slush fund, bribing politicians and making illegal attempts to smooth out the power succession for his son.Prosecutors initially demanded a seven-year jail term for the elder Lee, who was convicted of tax evasion in 2008 and given a three-year suspended prison sentence and a 110 billion won (now $98 million) fine.He was pardoned the following year by business-friendly then-President Lee Myung-bak.HyundaiIn 2007, prosecutors sought a six-year jail term for Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motors, for embezzlement and bribery.Chung was found guilty of siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars into a slush fund to bribe government officials and was given a three-year jail term, which was latersuspended on appeal. The tycoon received a full presidential pardon from then-President Lee Myung-bak in 2008.SKProsecutors demanded six years in prison for Chey Tae-won, chairman of chipmaker and telecom service provider SK Group, for embezzling nearly 50 billion won in 2013.Chey was sentenced to four years and spent about two years in jail, one of the longest sentences served by a South Korean chaebol leader.He was eventually released in 2015 along with thousands of others on a controversial presidential pardon by now ousted Park Geun-hye to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule over Korea.HanwhaConstruction to hotels group Hanwha’s Chairman Kim Seung-youn was given four years behind bars and a 5.1 billion won fine in 2012 after he was convicted of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars. It was a lighter sentence than the nine-year jail term sought by prosecutors but the decision was hailed as one that broke the pattern of light punishment for convicted chaebol leaders. Kim served only a few months in prison before the sentence was reduced to a suspended jail term.
Lee Jae-yong (centre), vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., over his alleged involvement in the corruption scandalcurrently engulfing South Korean President Park Geun - Hye.Among
other allegations, Lee is accused of paying nearly $40 million in
bribes to a confidante of the impeached president to secure policy
favours.