South Korea’s High Court on Thursday the 29th of October 2020, ratified a 17 -year prison jail term for former president Lee Myung-bak on a range of corruption charges. This ruling will send the former Korean leader back to prison.
Lee Myung-bak served as a president between 2008-2013 and had initially been sentenced to prison for 15 years in October 2018 by a Seoul district Court.
He was alleged to have collected 8.5 billion Won’ in bribes from various sources when he was in office. Most bribes were said to have come from Samsung, the country’s largest conglomerate.
President Lee was accused of granting Samsung’s Chairman at that time an amnesty that saw him retain membership on the International Olympics Committee and lead South Korea’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Lee was in the same year arrested for embezzlement of funds but had been out on bail awaiting the Supreme Court’s final say on his case which he had appealed.
The Thursday ruling upheld the 2018 verdict and added another 2 years to his sentence saying the bribes he had taken were larger summing up to a total of 9.4 billion Won. This is said to be the final ruling and no appeals are allowed on the verdict.
President Lee, 78 years, becomes the second South Korean President to be sentenced to jail on corruption charges after his successor Park Guen-hye who was impeached and ousted on charges of corruption and abuse of office in 2018. Park Guen-hye was given a 25 years jail term by an Appeal Court.
