S Korean ex-President Park gets 24-year jail for graft

Seoul, April 6: South Korean former President Park Geun-hye was sentenced to 24 years in prison and was fined 18 billion won on Friday in a massive corruption scandal that toppled her from power in 2017. In a live televised trial, the Seoul Central District Court meted out the guilty verdict for the 66-year-old former leader, about a year after her arrest in March 2017, Yonhap news agency reported. Park was convicted of 16 counts of corruption including bribery, coercion and abuse of power. “The President abused the power which was given to her by the citizens,” the judge said, adding a tough sentence was needed to send a firm message to the country’s future leaders.

South Korea’s first female President, who took office in early 2013, became the tion’s first elected head of state to be ousted and now the third former leader to be convicted of corruption. The scandal led to parliamentary impeachment of Park in December 2016. She was formally removed from office by the Constitutiol Court on March 10, 2017. Park did not appear in Friday’s sentencing trial. She has been boycotting the hearing in protest of the court’s October decision to extend her incarceration six months. (IANS)