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Former President Lee Myung-bak, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges of embezzlement and bribery worth tens of billions of won, has applied for the suspension of the execution of the sentence because he is not in good health.

In the passport, the story of a pardon is again coming out, but President Yun Seok-yeol has taken a cautious stance.



Correspondent Park Chan-geun.



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Former President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges of embezzling a dozen company money and paying Samsung litigation costs.



Former President Lee, who is imprisoned in Anyang Prison, applied for suspension of execution at the Anyang Branch on the 2nd.



He cited the fact that he was 80 years old this year and that his health had deteriorated significantly in recent years as reasons for the application.



This is the second application for former President Lee's suspension of execution.



It has been 1 year and 6 months since he applied for a COVID-19 mass infection at the Eastern Detention Center where he was imprisoned in December 2020, but was denied due to concerns about infection.



The Suwon District Prosecutor's Office decides whether or not to accept the sentence after going through the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office's Penalty Administrative Suspension Deliberation Committee.



Passport went a step further and brought out the amnesty again.



[Kwon Seong-dong/People's Power Floor Leader: I have a position that the pardon of former President Lee Myung-bak is necessary in terms of national unity and to build up the prestige of the Republic of Korea.]



Enlarging an image


President Yoon Seok-yeol, who has repeatedly stated the need for a pardon of former President Lee before the presidential election, took a cautious stance today (8th).



[President Yoon Seok-yeol: (I am curious about the possibility of a special pardon by former President Lee Myung-bak.) Well, I don't think it's a matter to talk about now.]



It seems that the opposition still seems to have been taken into account.



[Lee Seon-mi/Director of Policy Planning Bureau, Solidarity for Participation: The principle of equality before the law is undermined, does not go against social justice, and it may cause other social conflicts rather than national unity…

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However, former President Lee paid 5.78 billion won in fines for the sale of his private residence in Nonhyeon-dong and nearly half of the 13 billion won in fines.



(Video editing: Won Yang, CG: Jeon Yu-geun, Im Chan-hyuk)