A court in South Korea on Friday sentenced former President Lee Myung-bak to 15 years in prison after finding him guilty on various charges of corruption, AP reported. The court also ordered him to pay 13 billion won (Rs 84.6 crore) as penalty. He has denied most charges and has one week to appeal.
Lee, a former businessman, was president between 2008 and 2013. He was indicted on various charges in April, after being accused of accepting 11 billion won (Rs 71.6 crore now) in bribes between 2007 and 2012, including a bribe for a presidential pardon in 2009 for Samsung Group’s chairman convicted of tax evasion. Lee is also accused of embezzling 35 billion won between 1994 and 2006.
The Seoul Central District Court convicted him of bribery and embezzlement, among other charges. He had been held at a detention center in Seoul since his arrest in March. He had called the investigation “political revenge”.
All four living former presidents of South Korea have now been charged for or convicted of criminal offences. In April, the country’s first woman leader, Park Geun-hye, was convicted and sent to 24 years in prison for abuse of power, corruption and bribery. She was sentenced to nine more years in other convictions later.
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