[Editorial] Park’s sentence an appropriate punishment for the severity of her crimes

Posted on : 2018-04-07 17:49 KST Modified on : 2018-04-07 17:49 KST
Former president Park Geun-hye attends the first hearing of her trial at the Seoul Central District Court on May 23. Park refused to attend the sentencing phase of the trial on Apr. 6
Former president Park Geun-hye attends the first hearing of her trial at the Seoul Central District Court on May 23. Park refused to attend the sentencing phase of the trial on Apr. 6

Former president Park Geun-hye has been sentenced to 24 years in prison and a fine of 18 billion won (US$16.8 million). This is the punishment that the law hands down to a woman who described her trial as “political retribution passing as the rule of law.” While this is effectively a life sentence for Park, given her age of 66 years, it cannot be described as harsh given the severity of the crimes that she committed.

Trials are still pending for charges that she took bribes from the National Intelligence Service’s special activity fund and that she violated election law. It is likely that her sentence will become even heavier. She obviously brought all this upon herself, not only through the influence peddling itself but also through her consistently haughty demeanor and her defiance of the will of the people through her attempts to game the justice system. This sentence brings to a close the initial trial of her influence peddling, showing that the history of Korean democracy has been elevated to the next level through the power of 14 million protesters at the candlelit rallies.

On Apr. 6, Hon. Kim Se-yun, the presiding judge at the 22nd criminal division of the Seoul Central District Court, found Park guilty of most of the 18 criminal charges against her. “Park must be held strictly responsible to prevent a repeat of the misfortune of a president willfully abusing the authority bestowed upon her by the people and throwing the affairs of government into chaos.”

Park’s supporters have consistently argued that not only the investigations by the prosecutors and by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo but also the trial itself were “political retribution” and have refused to even acknowledge the facts of the influence peddling or the abuse of authority. But during the district court’s trial and judgment, the specific facts of the crime of influence-peddling – of a sitting president “sharing the position and authority bestowed upon her by the people with a private individual” – were made glaringly obvious through the evidence presented, leading to guilty verdicts for the majority of the charges.

The court acknowledged that Choi Soon-sil, the power behind the throne, was involved in the details of running the country, from drafting Park’s inaugural address to organizing meetings for her senior secretaries at the Blue House, and that she had been accordingly given free access to classified documents at the Blue House. Park was only found guilty in connection with 14 of the 47 documents for which she had been indicted because of procedural problems with the searches in which they had turned up, but the truth of the influence peddling has basically been officially corroborated.

The charges that a sitting president threatened and coerced chaebols and state enterprises to extract funds for the interests of her friend of forty years and that she micromanaged personnel decisions for uncooperative public servants and even employees in the private sector all turned out to be true. Park threatened chaebols to sign supply contracts with a company run by someone whom Choi had met in a meeting of school parents, and the sordid truth was revealed about special requests made to state enterprises about advertisements and appointments on behalf of Choi’s companies.

And it was not just corruption on a personal level. Organizations and figures in the arts and culture who had criticized the government or who had ideological differences were added to a blacklist that made them ineligible for government funding, which the court declared to be “an action that violates the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution.”

The attitude that Park has exhibited not only during the investigation by the special prosecutor but also throughout the trial was also probably one reason for her severe sentence. Even though large numbers of not only Blue House advisors but also ministers and vice ministers are in jail because of poor governance and personal corruption, Park still shifts the blame to her subordinates and insists that she never gave them such orders.

While she was still in office, she prevented the special prosecutor from serving a search warrant, and after she was put on trial, she brazenly impeded the progress of the trial. By refusing to accept the majority of the evidence submitted by the prosecutors, more than 100 people were forced to testify in court. That dragged out the trial, and when another detention warrant was issued, Park refused to participate any further on the grounds that she should not be detained and did not show her face until the day of the sentencing.

After all that, she then filed two objections to the court’s plan to broadcast the sentencing live by citing the principle of the “presumption of innocence” and even announced her plan to challenge the constitutionality of the broadcast. This clashes with her exploitation of the courts and her trampling on the law. Even the law has eyes and feelings.

Since Park is still refusing to participate in the trial about the use of the National Intelligence Service’s special activity fund, it remains to be seen what attitude she will exhibit after receiving this harsh sentence. But it would be nice if even now she would show her sincere contrition for the tragic sinking of the Sewol. Along with the fact that Park was in her bedroom during the critical period when precious lives were begging to be rescued, if she fabricated the timing of her briefings about the disaster as well, that would be a crime that exceeds the scope of legal punishment and could not be atoned for even if she apologized for the rest of her life.

Former Prime Minister Goh Kun once said that Park should have run a memorial foundation for her father instead of becoming president. In retrospect, the entire public was hoodwinked for more than twenty years as a person of dubious ability became president and exploited the authority of her position while relying upon a powerbroker in the shadows. This is cause for serious reflection by the press, the prosecutors and the National Assembly. But the absurd thing is that the people who ought to feel the most responsibility are covering for Park and feigning innocence.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Most viewed articles