A South Korean court on Friday sentenced former South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an additional eight years for abusing state funds and violating election laws.
She now faces the prospect of more than three decades behind bars. She's already serving a 24-year prison term over a massive corruption scandal that led to her removal from office last year.
In this Aug. 7, 2017, file photo, former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, arrives for her trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
Seoul Central District Court on Friday found her guilty of causing substantial losses to state coffers by unlawfully receiving about 3 billion won ($2.6 million) from chiefs of the National Intelligence Service during her presidency and sentenced her to six years in prison.
However, she was found not guilty of bribery charges related to the money transfers. The court said it was unclear whether the spy chiefs sought or received favors in return.
The court separately sentenced Park to two years in prison for breaking election laws by meddling in her party candidate's nomination while attempting to win more spots for her loyalists ahead of the parliamentary elections in 2016.
She didn't appear in court.
Park's conservative party failed to gain a majority in the National Assembly after the parliamentary vote in April 2016. Analysts then said voters were frustrated over what they saw as Park's heavy-handed and uncompromising leadership style and inability to tolerate dissent within her party, which triggered rifts between her loyalists and reformists.
The party's defeat loomed large months later in December when an opposition-controlled parliament suspended Park's powers by passing a bill on her impeachment. Millions of protesters had poured onto the streets calling for Park's ouster amid allegations that she colluded with a longtime confidant to take tens of millions of dollars from companies in bribes and extortion and allowed the friend to secretly manipulate state affairs. The court convicted Park on most of these charges when it sentenced her to 24 years in prison in April.
The ruling marked a stunning fall from grace for the country's first female leader who won the 2012 presidential election by more than a million votes. Park enjoyed overwhelming support from conservatives who remember her father, staunch anti-communist dictator Park Chung-hee, as a hero whose aggressive industrial policies lifted the nation from the devastation of the 1950-53 Korean War and rescued millions from poverty. Critics see the elder Park as a brutal dictator who tortured and executed dissidents.
While Park's prison term currently adds up to 32 years, this could change, and potentially get even longer, depending on rulings of appeals courts. Prosecutors appealed Park's 24-year term on charges including bribery and abuse of state power and are now demanding 30 years in prison. The Seoul High Court will rule on the case on Aug. 24.
Following her impeachment, Park was formally removed from office following a ruling by the country's Constitutional Court in March last year and was arrested weeks later.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's attorney general appointed a special prosecutor Thursday to investigate the death of a man who was beaten by guards at a state prison, saying her office cannot oversee the inquiry because it was already representing some of the corrections officials involved in civil lawsuits.
Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, chose the Republican district attorney in Onondaga County, William Fitzpatrick, to investigate the Dec. 10 death of Robert Brooks.
The attorney general typically investigates the deaths of people in the custody of law enforcement, but James said four of the officers under investigation were already being represented by lawyers in her office. Some of the guards have previously been defendants in brutality lawsuits filed by other prisoners.
“Even the possibility or mere appearance of a conflict could tie up a potential prosecution in lengthy legal challenges or get a potential prosecution outright dismissed,” James said in a video message. “And I will not allow justice to be delayed or denied because of a conflict.”
Recently released body camera video shows officers punching Brooks while he was handcuffed on a medical examination table at Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. One officer uses a shoe to strike Brooks in the stomach, and another yanks him up by his neck and drops him back on the table.
Brooks was pronounced dead the following morning.
Fitzpatrick has been the top prosecutor in the Syracuse area since 1992. His office released a statement saying he would not comment “until the grand jury has taken action.”
The beating has prompted widespread condemnation and calls for reform. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she was “outraged and horrified” by the videos, appointed a new superintendent for the prison. She also ordered state officials to initiate proceedings to fire 13 correctional officers and a nurse implicated in the attack.
Now that a special prosecutor has been appointed, Hochul said, she expects his team will work quickly to bring charges.
“The video of this horrific attack demonstrates that crimes clearly were committed, and I believe initial charges can be brought even as more serious charges are considered based on further investigation,” said Hochul, who as governor has no authority over the special prosecutor or to bring criminal charges herself.
The final results of Brooks’ autopsy are not available. Preliminary findings from a medical examination indicate “concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to court filings.
Brooks, who was serving a 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault since 2017, arrived at the prison 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of New York City only hours before the beating after being transferred from another nearby facility, officials said.
FILE — Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick speaks during a news in Syracuse, N.Y., Feb. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Nick Lisi, File)
FILE - This image provided by the New York State Attorney General office shows body camera footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, 43, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., on Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General office via AP, File)
