South Korean political scandal

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean court sentenced former president Park Geun-hye to eight more years in prison on Friday after finding her guilty on charges of causing loss of government funds and interfering in a 2016 parliamentary election.

Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was formally convicted and sentenced to 24 years in prison on April 6, a year after she was driven from office and arrested over a corruption scandal that saw months of massive street rallies calling for her ouster.

By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, SEOUL, South Korea, Apr 6 - South Korea's disgraced former president Park Geun-hye was jailed for 24 years Friday for corruption, closing out a dramatic fall from grace for the country's first woman leader who became a figure of public fury and ridicule.

South Korean prosecutors on Feb.27 sought a 30-year jail term for former President Park Geun-hye who was ousted last year amid an influence-peddling scandal that rocked the country’s business and political elite.

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was freed on Feb. 5 after a South Korean appeals court gave him a suspended jail sentence for corruption in connection with a scandal that topped the country’s president.

Former President Park Geun-hye denied corruption charges Tuesday at the start of a criminal trial that could potentially send South Korea's first female leader to prison for life.

Police had earlier escorted Park, in handcuffs, into court for her first public appearance since she was jailed on March 31 for corruption allegations that led to her removal from office.

South Korean prosecutors will summon former president Park Geun-Hye, whose impeachment was confirmed by the country's highest court last week, for questioning as a criminal suspect, a spokesman said March 14.

Park has been named as an accomplice to the secret confidante at the heart of a corruption and influence-peddling scandal that triggered her dramatic downfall.

Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee will go on trial for bribery and embezzlement on March 2, a court said, amid a corruption scandal that has rocked South Korea and led to the impeachment of the president. 

Prosecutors on Feb. 17 arrested the de facto head of South Korea's largest conglomerate, Samsung, on bribery and other charges related to a political corruption scandal that triggered the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye.

The daughter of Choi Soon-Sil, the woman at the center of a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of South Korea's President, has been arrested in Denmark after months in hiding, Seoul prosecutors said Dec. 2.