SEOUL: South Korea’s current leader has issued a special pardon for former conservative president Lee Myung-bak, who had been serving a 17-year jail sentence for corruption that could have kept him behind bars into his 90s.
Yoon Suk-yeol issued the pardon for Lee, 81, yesterday that will be effective today, the Justice Ministry said, making Lee the fourth former president to be issued a pardon since the country’s advent to full democracy in 1987.
Lee’s term from 2008 to 2013 was marked by mass protests and renewed tensions with North Korea. The corruption charges against Lee stemmed from a probe of his brother’s auto parts company, which prosecutors alleged Lee used as a way to enrich himself while in office.Lee rose from poverty to become a high-flying executive at Hyundai Engineering & Construction, gaining popularity as a self-made man amid the country’s surging economic growth after the Korean War.
He entered politics in his 50s, becoming a member of parliament and mayor of Seoul.
He focused on improving the quality of life in the capital that included speeding up commutes and restoring a river in the centre of the capital by tearing down a highway he helped build while at Hyundai that had been constructed above the waterway.
Lee, who refused to attend his trial, accused prosecutors of carrying out political revenge on behalf of former president Moon Jae-in’s liberal government. — Bloomberg
