Ex-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is currently imprisoned on corruption allegations, won a presidential pardon on Tuesday, according to the justice ministry.
Lee was among more than 1,300 persons who obtained special pardons “from the standpoint of wide national unity through reconciliation, tolerance, and consideration,” Han Dong-hoon said during a Cabinet meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Lee, 81, was given a temporary release from jail in June due to his age and declining health. He is serving a 17-year sentence for bribery and embezzlement.
It was effectively a life sentence as he was not due for release until 2036, when he would be 95.
The former Hyundai CEO-turned-president was charged with 16 criminal allegations in 2018 and sentenced in 2020.
He was found guilty of creating slush funds of tens of millions of dollars and accepting bribes from Samsung Electronics in return for a presidential pardon for its late chairman, Lee Kun-hee, who was jailed for tax evasion.
A self-made man who was appointed head of a major construction firm at age 35 before entering politics, Lee served as president from 2008 to 2013.
He steered the country through the global financial crisis and won its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics but was criticized by opponents for undermining the nation’s democratic standards and freedoms of speech.
The pardons, effective at midnight Wednesday, mark the second time Yoon has exercised his clemency power since taking office in May.
In August, Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong was among the beneficiaries of Yoon’s first pardons.
South Korean presidents have frequently ended up in prison after their time in power, usually once their political rivals have moved into the presidential Blue House.
