Former president Lee Myung-bak and former Gyeongnam governor Kim Gyeong-soo. Kyunghyang Shinmun data photo
The government finalizes the recipients of the New Year’s special pardon at a cabinet meeting presided over by President Yoon Seok-yeol on the 27th.
According to the results of the review by the Ministry of Justice’s amnesty review committee on the 23rd, former President Lee Myung-bak (MB) and former Gyeongnam Governor Kim Gyeong-soo are expected to be pardoned.
Lee, who is expected to be pardoned and reinstated, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in October 2020 on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Lee’s execution is currently suspended for health reasons. Lee was investigated by the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office in April 2018, when President Yoon was the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, and was handed over to trial.
Former Governor Kim, who is serving a sentence in the ‘Druking Comment Manipulation Incident’, is expected to receive an amnesty without a lottery ticket. Former Governor Kim was sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court in July of last year, and his sentence expires in May next year. If his reinstatement does not take place, his right to vote will be restricted until May 2028.
Former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon of the Park Geun-hye administration, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Kyung-hwan, former National Intelligence Service directors Nam Jae-joon, Lee Byung-ki, and Lee Byung-ho, and former NIS director Won Sei-hoon of the Lee Myung-bak administration are also expected to be included in the amnesty and reinstatement.
Opposition figures such as Jeon Byung-hun, former Democratic Party lawmaker and former Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Gye-ryun, and former Gwangju Mayor Kang Woon-tae, who served as senior presidential secretary for political affairs in the Moon Jae-in administration, are also expected to be pardoned and reinstated.
The pardon takes effect from 0:00 on the 28th, the next day after passing the State Council.