South Korea's justice ministry said on Friday (December 24) that president Moon Jae-in granted a pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, who is in prison after being convicted of corruption.
Park, 69, became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote in 2017 to impeach her over a scandal that also landed the heads of two conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, in jail.
She was brought down after being found guilty of colluding with a confidante to receive tens of billions of won from major conglomerates to help her family and fund nonprofit foundations she owned.
In January, South Korea's top court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for Park on the graft charges that finalized her downfall, bringing an end to the legal process and for the first time raising the possibility of a pardon.
But Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak, who is also imprisoned on corruption charges, was not pardoned.
Opposition lawmakers have said that Park has experienced health problems while in prison, including undergoing shoulder surgery.
