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Ex-president Park Geun-hye during her first trial on May 23. (photo pool)
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Ex-president has yet to appeal any of the trial verdicts against her
Ex-president Park Geun-hye’s two-year sentence in her first and second trials on charges of interfering with nominations by the Saenuri Party appears set to be upheld. The rulings were to first of the charges against Park to be finalized. Indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, Park had declined to submit an appeal as of Nov. 28. To seek a Supreme Court judgment, her team would have had to submit the appeal to the court by midnight that day, which marked one week from the ruling date. Park has yet to appeal any of the trial verdicts against her. The prosecutors are also unable to appeal. In her first and second trials, Park was convicted of all charges listed in the prosecutors’ indictment. The Supreme Court would dismiss an appeal asking for a longer sentence. The Criminal Procedure Act states that appeals related to unjust sentencing are only possible in cases involving death or life sentences and prison sentences of 10 years or more (with or without labor). On Nov. 21, Hon. Kim In-gyeom of Seoul High Court’s first criminal division dismissed an appeal from prosecutors after Park was sentenced to two years in prison in her first trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. “The court in the first trial convicted [Park] on all charges, and the prosecutors have appealed on the grounds that the sentence was too light,” the court explained. “There do not appear to be any special circumstances to warrant increasing the sentence in this case, and the first court’s ruling cannot be seen as having strayed beyond a rational judgment,” it concluded. Park was delivered for trial on charges of having ordered Hyun Ki-hwan, then Blue House senior secretary to the president for political affairs, to ensure that lawmakers from her National Assembly camp received nominations ahead of the 20th general election. Park was also been accused of using special activity funds from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to commission opinion surveys for pro-Park candidates between Nov. 2015 and Mar. 2016. By Ko Han-sol and Choi Woo-ri, staff reporters Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
