The heavy penalty on Park Geun-hye is a due consequence

6. April. 2018

Today the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Settlement Section 22 (chief judge: Kim Se-yoon) sentenced former President Park Geun-hye in the first trial to 24 years in prison and 18 billion won in fines. It is a due result of abusing the authority entrusted by the people, and of forcing and taking bribes that exceed 23 billion won. Park Geun-hye has never apologized to the people, denied all the allegations, and boycotted even the trial. The heavy penalty on Park Geun-hye, who shows no self-reflection, is a natural consequence. The imposed sentence to her is never heavy compared to the enormous national confusion she created, anger and despair to the people, and the effort to be made to correct the reversed democracy in Korea. 

The Court convicted Park Geun-hye of 16 among the 18 charges and recognized her involvement with abuse of power and coercion. The court clarified that Park Geun-hye is guilty of undermining the Constitution and severely violating laws by conspiring with Choi Soon-sil in pursuing private profit through corporations and engaging in discrimination and disadvantage against people who are critical of her government. However, just as in Choi Soon-sil’s first trial, that the court did not recognize the ‘explicit or implicit solicitation’ for the Samsung’s family succession is a very unsatisfactory part because the judgment has reduced the collusive links between politics and business, the essence of the monopoly of state affairs.

It has been one year since the presidential impeachment. With first trial sentence today, we have made another step forward to a new nation. The constitutional spirit has been confirmed once again: All power comes from the people. This, however, was only the first trial of Park Geun-hye, the main culprit in the state monopoly. Samsung's long-standing illegal activities, inextricably linked to state power, have not been properly punished yet. In addition, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong has recently been released by the judgement that ignored justice and the rule of law. The judgments to be followed at the second trials and the Supreme Court against Park Geun-hye and the related criminals should be in accordance with justice and the rule of law. The People’s Solidarity of Participatory Democracy (PSPD) will continue to monitor and examine the trials to be followed to ensure the criminals of state monopoly are punished appropriately.

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