hankyoreh

Former President Lee Myung-bak heads to his appeal trial at the Seoul Central District Court on Jan. 8. (Yonhap News)

On Oct. 19, former President Lee Myung-bak received a Supreme Court ruling upholding a 17-year prison sentence. As in the first and second trials, the Supreme Court likewise recognized Lee’s guilt regarding charges of misappropriating 25.23 billion won (US$22.23 million) into a slush fund over a 20-year period as the de facto owner of the automobile parts company DAS. Lee also accepted 8.9 billion won (US$7.84 million) in bribes from Samsung, including payments of DAS legal costs on his behalf.

This final ruling comes 13 years after allegations of Lee’s ownership of DAS under a borrowed name first surfaced during the Hannara Party presidential candidate race in 2007. His crimes were truly grave: concealing his borrowed-name assets over the course of a more than 20 years in elected positions such as National Assembly lawmaker, mayor of Seoul, and president, while brazenly lying to the South Korean public and insisting that DAS belonged to his brother-in-law and older brother even amid numerous media allegations and investigations by prosecutors and a special prosecutor. His acceptance of over 500 million won (US$440,494) in bribes in exchange for official positions during his presidency -- including National Assembly seats – is a profound betrayal of the South Korean people who entrusted him with such immense authority.

Yet Lee shows no hint of remorse. After spending the entire course of the trial denying the charges and claiming them to be a form of “political retribution,” he continued with the farfetched arguments in a position statement after the Supreme Court decision on Oct. 29, insisting that “the rule of law has collapsed” and that the “Supreme Court was neither fair nor just.” It’s hard not to laugh when hearing the part of his statement about being “concerned for the country’s future.”

Leaving aside the burden he saddled the South Korean public with the Four Major Rivers project and all the other blunders he committed during his administration, the very fact that a former president has been convicted of bribe acceptance and misappropriation of funds is a shocking blow to our national prestige. The least he could do as someone who held the presidency even for a while is to quit at once with this hypocrisy about “concern for the country” and kneel before the public in apology.

Lee is reportedly scheduled to return to prison on Nov. 2 after a period for settling his affairs. He was originally detained in March 2018 and released on bail in March 2019 after his first trial sentence; he was taken into court custody following an appellate court sentence in February this year but released after six days when the detention’s execution was suspended. With all this time spent in and out of the detention center, he has around 16 years left in his sentence. Some people have already been calling for a special pardon, since Lee meets the conditions for one now that his sentence has been upheld.

Conservative parties have been calling nonstop for such a pardon. But special pardons are a decision that should be carefully weighed even when someone shows clear regret for their misdeeds; it would be absurd to grant one to Lee Myung-bak, someone who has not shown the smallest shred of remorse. It would be an intolerable affront for a South Korean public enraged over being deceived and betrayed by him.

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