Park Geun-hye, the fourth president of’Black History’

The final sentence of former President Park Geun-hye, who was tried on charges of reimbursement of the National Intelligence Service and special activity expenses, was confirmed to be 20 years in prison on the 14th. It has been four years and three months after the arrest prosecution in April 2017, and the release of the tablet PC of Choi Seo-won (pre-renamed Choi Soon-sil), triggered the state-run Nongdan incident. The unveiling of the tablet PC of Choi Seo-won (previously renamed Choi Soon-sil) led to the unprecedented impeachment of the president, leading to the early launch of the Moon Jae-in administration. With the decision of the Supreme Court that day, former President Park became the fourth former president after former Presidents Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan, and Lee Myung-bak and was imprisoned.

The third section of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Roh Tae-ak) confirmed the court sentence of 20 years in prison, 18 billion won in fine, and 3.5 billion won in additional fines at the hearing of former President Park, who was charged with bribery under the aggravated punishment law for certain crimes. . Former President Park was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of intervening in the old Saenuri Party nomination and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. It is noteworthy that discussions on pardon will resume as all trials involving former President Park are over.

◇The first’impeachment’ in the history of the constitution triggered by the tablet PC = The fact that the Gukjeong Nongdan incident began in earnest was after Choi’s public report on the tablet PC, which was discussed in October 2016 as the so-called’discrimination’ by former President Park. The suspicion that Mr. Choi received and corrected the president’s speech before it was officially announced was fueled by controversy over state affairs. As the suspicion of Choi’s involvement in the government spread, the prosecution established a special investigative headquarters, and Choi, who had stayed in Germany, returned to Korea to be investigated and charged with arrest. After that, the National Assembly began discussing the impeachment of the president, and a proposal for impeachment proceedings was proposed in December of the same year and passed with 234 votes in favor and 56 against. On the 21st, ahead of the end of the year, Park Young-soo’s special inspection team started an official investigation. At the time, the special prosecution team received attention as the prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol (currently the prosecutor general), who was demoted while conducting the investigation of the’Suspicion of Intervention in the National Intelligence Service’. On March 10 of the following year, the Constitutional Court decided to impeach him, and Park became the first president to be dismissed from the constitution.

◇ The sentence was confirmed after two Supreme Court judgments = After Constitutional Jae-jae dismissed former President Park, the prosecution’s investigation accelerated. On March 21, 2017, former President Park was summoned to the prosecution as a suspect and was arrested on the 31st of the same month. The court sentenced to 24 years imprisonment and a fine of 18 billion won in the first trial of the National Nongdan Trial. In the meantime, additional prosecutions were made in the case of repayment of the National Intelligence Service’s special activity expenses and the case of intervention in the nomination of the Saenuri Party, and a separate trial proceeded. Each case was sentenced to six years in prison and two years in prison at the first trial. Subsequently, the sentence was confirmed as it was for the case of the nomination intervention case, and a fine of 20 billion won for 25 years imprisonment in the second trial was sentenced in the case of the state administration Nongdan, and five years in prison for the case of the NIS special service expenses. Until then, the total sentence for former President Park to serve was 32 years in prison.

However, after that, the trial for the case of the governmental Nongdan and the special activity expenses was separately submitted to the Supreme Court and then destroyed and returned. The Supreme Court abolished and remanded the case with the intent that some of the charges of coercion and abuse of authority in the case of non-governmental government were not guilty, and that some of the charges of bribery in the case of special expenses should be changed from innocence to guilty. The revocation trial changed the judgment of guilt in accordance with the judgment of the Supreme Court and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The decision confirmed by the Supreme Court on this day was a decision that retained the revocation court for revocation.

◇ Fourth of the past presidents disgraced = Former President Park became the fourth former presidential prisoner with this Supreme Court ruling. The decision of the former president’s imprisonment is the fourth after Roh, Jeon, and Lee. Previously, on October 29 last year, former President Lee was in prison for 17 years and a fine of 13 billion won. Considering the age of former President Park, it is also evaluated that the 22-year sentence is actually life in prison. Former President Park has already been imprisoned for 1,396 days until this day, which is the longest incarceration among the presidents. In April and September 2019, former President Park also applied for suspension of executions to the prosecution for health problems. However, the deliberation committee for suspension of executions rejected all applications, saying that it is difficult to see them as impossible to live in prison.
/ Reporter Kyungwoon Lee [email protected]

< 저작권자 ⓒ 서울경제, 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지 >