South Korea jails Lee Myung-bak for 15 years for Corruption, Report.
Lee Myung-bak is the fourth former South Korean president to be jailed with his successor Park Geun-hye imprisoned earlier due to a massive corruption scandal.
According to media reports, a Seoul court has jailed former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for 15 years over corruption charges.
In addition to imprisonment, Lee Myung-bak will also have to pay a fine of 13 billion won (11.5 million dollars).
The court found the former head of state guilty on seven out of the 16 counts.
The former South Korean president faced charges of having accepted around $10 million in illegal funds from companies such as Samsung and his own intelligence service.
Lee denied all the charges, saying that the investigation had been politically motivated.
The political scandal around Park Geun-hye broke out in October 2016, when she was accused of having allowed her longtime friend and close associate Choi Soon-sil, who did not hold any official post, to get involved in state affairs.
The scandal led to Park’s impeachment in December 2016, which was confirmed by the country’s Constitutional Court on March 10. Twenty days later, on March 30, she was arrested. During the court hearings, South Korean prosecutors demanded that the former president be sentenced to 30 years in jail and asked the court to fine her $110 million.
