SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday it’s going to grant a special pardon to ex-President Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to a 17-year prison term for a spread of corruption crimes.
The Justice Ministry said in a press release that Lee is amongst 1,373 convicts who shall be pardoned Wednesday. It said it has decided to incorporate some politicians, corresponding to Lee, as a part of efforts to advertise national unity.
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 an organization he owned, and other corruption-related crimes before and through his presidency from 2008 to 2013.
He was South Korea’s first president with a business background and once symbolized the country’s economic rise. He began his business profession with an entry-level job at Hyundai Group’s construction arm within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, before he rose to CEO of 10 corporations 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.
SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government of President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday it’s going to grant a special pardon to ex-President Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to a 17-year prison term for a spread of corruption crimes.
The Justice Ministry said in a press release that Lee is amongst 1,373 convicts who shall be pardoned Wednesday. It said it has decided to incorporate some politicians, corresponding to Lee, as a part of efforts to advertise national unity.
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 an organization he owned, and other corruption-related crimes before and through his presidency from 2008 to 2013.
He was South Korea’s first president with a business background and once symbolized the country’s economic rise. He began his business profession with an entry-level job at Hyundai Group’s construction arm within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, before he rose to CEO of 10 corporations 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.
