Former President Park Geun-hye (69), who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the National Nongdan incident, etc., will be released today (30th) at 12:00 p.m. with a special New Year's pardon.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the release procedure for former President Park will take place at Samsung Seoul Hospital in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where he is currently hospitalized, around 00:00 tomorrow, when the amnesty takes effect.
The pardon process will be completed when the correctional authorities issue a pardon certificate to former President Park right before the pardon takes effect, and the five or so caretakers who stayed in the hospital withdrew.
Ex-President Park's health deteriorated while imprisoned in Seoul Detention Center, and it is known that he will be hospitalized until at least February 2nd next year to receive treatment.
Contact with outsiders is also blocked except for a small number of people, including lawyer Yoo Young-ha, who is close to him.
Former President Park was hospitalized on the 22nd of last month due to a chronic disease and was scheduled to receive treatment for a month, but received a specialist opinion that required hospitalization for more than six weeks.
In this amnesty, former President Park's health problems were also an important consideration.
At a press conference yesterday, Justice Minister Park Beom-gye said, "I looked at the opinions of the three hospitals again, and it was a diagnosis, not a statement." .
Ex-President Park was released after being pardoned and reinstated, but he was not treated as a former president according to the Act on Courtesy of Ex-Presidents and received only security support.
An official from the Ministry of Justice said, "The Seoul Detention Center has been in charge of all security and security duties.
In accordance with the Act on the Security of President Park, the Presidential Security Service is in charge of the security of former President Park.
According to the law, if the President resigns before the end of his term, the period of security is five years thereafter.
As former President Park was detained for 4 years and 9 months, in principle, after 3 months, the security of the bodyguard ends in early March of next year and he is transferred to the police.
However, it is necessary to discuss between the security service and the police as it includes a provision to protect 'other domestic and foreign factors that the director deems necessary for security'.
In January of this year, former President Park was sentenced to 20 years in prison, a fine of 18 billion won, and a fine of 3.5 billion won by the Supreme Court on charges such as state government nongdan and payment of special activity expenses by the National Intelligence Service.
In November 2018, he was sentenced to two years in prison for illegally intervening in the nomination process of the former Saenuri Party (now the People's Power), and had to serve a total of 22 years in prison.
After his arrest on March 31, 2017, former President Park, who was released after serving 1,736 days (4 years and 9 months) in prison, is exempted from the remaining 17 years and 3 months in prison.
Although the penalty of 3.5 billion won has been paid in full, the fine of about 15 billion won that has not been paid is exempted.