Ex-President Lee Myung-bak unlikely to be released

By Kang Seung-woo

Former President Lee Myung-bak and former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo are not likely to make the list of people that President Yoon Suk-yeol will grant special amnesty to due to concerns that such pardons might negatively affect his declining approval ratings.

However, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and other business leaders may be among those pardoned as part of the government's aim to overcome economic challenges.

Former President Lee Myung-bak / Korea Times file

According to ruling party officials, President Yoon received various opinions, Tuesday, on the eve of the pardon committee meeting, and he has made a decision to minimize the number of politicians to be pardoned on the occasion of National Liberation Day, which falls on Monday, Aug. 15.

The final amnesty list will be announced on Friday.

Each administration has used national holidays to grant paroles or presidential pardons under the pretext of national unity.

Yoon's decision is a shift from his previous indication that the jailed former president could be freed.

In June, Yoon had said it would not be appropriate to keep Lee behind bars "for two decades."

"I think it is not right for him to be imprisoned for two decades based on similar instances in the past," Yoon told reporters at that time.

Lee, 80, was sentenced to a 17-year jail term in November 2020 for embezzlement and bribery, but he has been out of prison since June after a court granted him a three-month suspension due to health reasons, raising speculation over a possible pardon.

However, Yoon's falling approval ratings, accompanied by negative public sentiment over pardoning Lee, seem to have led the president to the decision amid concerns that it could be an additional burden on state affairs.

According to a public poll that interviewed 1,006 adults last month, only 39 percent of the respondents were positive toward Yoon pardoning Lee, while 56 percent were opposed to freeing Lee.

With Lee unlikely to be pardoned, the former South Gyeongsang Province governor will likely not be included in the beneficiary list either.

Kim, a close aide to former President Moon Jae-in, was sentenced to two years in prison, last year, for conspiring to manipulate online opinion ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

On the other hand, the Samsung heir is likely to be one of the most talked about potential beneficiaries of a pardon. Lee was sentenced to a two-and-a-half years in prison for bribery last year but was released on parole last August.

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