[Aju News DB]
SEOUL -- South Korea's ousted ex-president Park Geun-hye saw her jail sentence being raised by one year to 25 years Friday after an appeals court upheld charges that she played a key role in a massive corruption scandal that revealed deep-rooted collusive ties between businessmen and politicians.
The High Court in Seoul also upheld a 20-year prison sentence for Park's crony, Choi Sool-sil. The fine for Park and Choi increased from 18 billion won ($16 million) to 20 billion won.
The disgraced ex-president was found guilty of "seriously" violating corporate property rights and the freedom of enterprise management by abusing her status and authority, the court said, scolding Park for refusing to reflect on her wrongdoing, making "unconvincing" excuses and shifting blame to aides.
"The immoral transaction of political and economic power undermined the essence of democracy and distorted the market economy order, bringing feelings of serious loss and deep distrust to the people who watched it," the court said in its verdict.
Park, who was ousted as South Korea's first female president after the constitutional court upheld her impeachment on March 10 last year, did not attend Friday's court session. She started boycotting hearings on October 16 last year in protest at her extended detention, condemning her trial as political retaliation.
In April, a lower court sentenced Park to 24 years in prison. In July, She received an extra eight-year prison term for taking 3.5 billion won illegally from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and intervening in elections. She was accused of spending NIS money on maintenance of her private residence, medical treatment and incentives for aides.
With Friday's verdict, Park, 66, should stay in jail for a total of 33 years. She has denied charges of bribery, abuse of authority, coercion and leaking state secrets to Choil, who was arrested in November 2016 at the height of political turmoil and massive candle-lit protests.
Choi was convicted of causing a state crisis by controlling government affairs arbitrarily for her personal interests and coercing business leaders to make illegal donations.
The scandal fanned public sentiment against corporate donations, leading to the arrests of Samsung's de facto leader Jay Y. Lee and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin. Lee received a five-year jail sentence for embezzling company funds to bribe Choi, but he was released in February after an appeals court suspended his jail sentence.
Choi and Park were accused of cooperating to accept bribes from Samsung, but the lower court ruled that it is difficult to say that Lee bribed them for "explicit or implicit" favors to facilitate the transfer of group leadership from his ailing father. The appeals court ruled that some 1.62 billion won donated by Lee to Choi's sports-related foundation should be characterized as bribe for implicit favors.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
