A former president of South Korea who was impeached for corruption and fraud charges in 2017 and convicted a year later will be pardoned of her crimes by the government of South Korea in a mass commutation at the end of the year, the Associated Press reports.
Park Geun-hye, 69, received a twenty year prison sentence following her conviction. She reportedly is in poor health which has worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Park has denied her guilt in the case and claimed that she is the victim of a political vendetta.
“We should move into a new era by getting over the pains of the past. It’s time to boldly pull together all our strengths for the future rather than fighting against each other while being preoccupied with the past,” President Moon Jae-in said in a statement. “In the case of former President Park, we considered the fact that her health condition has deteriorated a lot after serving nearly five years in prison.”