Special Amnesty Focused on Low-Income Livelihood Offenders... Politicians Including Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye Excluded

"Measures to Ease Burden on Common People Due to COVID-19 Spread"

President Moon Jae-in [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Among the 3,024 individuals granted special pardons by President Moon Jae-in, who carried out his fourth special pardon since taking office, 2,920 were general criminal offenders, accounting for 97%. The focus was on alleviating the burdens on ordinary citizens facing difficulties in their livelihoods due to criminal penalties or administrative sanctions, especially amid the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The special remission measures for driver's license cancellations, suspensions, and penalty points, which benefited 1.11 million people, also support President Moon's intention to pardon offenders related to ordinary citizens' livelihoods.

97% Criminal Offenders Pardoned in COVID-19 Special Amnesty

Among the general criminal offenders, crimes such as murder, robbery, organized violence, sexual violence, and bribery were all excluded. Instead, 2,295 offenders violating 10 livelihood-related administrative laws, including violations of the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling, Road Traffic Act, and Fisheries Act, had the effects of their sentences nullified, and various qualification restrictions such as disqualification from executive positions and public servant appointment bans were lifted. Model prisoners who were on suspension of sentence execution due to severe illness or had difficulty serving their sentences normally, but showed good behavior and low risk of recidivism, were also pardoned.

Another feature of this pardon was the large number of small and medium-sized business owners and small merchants included. Fifty-two economic crime convicts, such as those who had operated their businesses normally for a long time but accumulated debts due to business downturns or used the damage amount for business purposes rather than personal use, were included. The government stated, "By actively identifying and pardoning small and medium-sized business owners and small merchants, we aimed to enable them to recover and contribute to the revitalization of the livelihood economy."

Election Offenders and Businesspeople Excluded

In the third special pardon last December, President Moon included general criminal offenders such as former Gangwon Province Governor Lee Kwang-jae, former Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Kwak No-hyun, former Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Chairman Han Sang-kyun, conscientious objectors to military service, and election offenders. The large-scale special pardon for election offenders was the first in nine years since 2010.

However, this time, President Moon did not include politicians, election offenders, conglomerate heads, or businesspeople in the special pardon. Since his presidential campaign, President Moon has stated a principle of restricting the exercise of pardon rights for anti-corruption crime offenders and market-disturbing actors. During the presidential election, he defined bribery, solicitation and acceptance of bribes, breach of trust, and embezzlement as the five major serious corruption crimes and pledged to limit pardons for offenders of these crimes. He also pledged not to exercise pardon rights for market-disturbing acts such as stock price manipulation.

Businesspeople, as well as high-profile figures such as former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook and former lawmaker Lee Seok-ki, who were the main focus of this pardon, were excluded. The pardons for former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, demanded by the conservative camp, were also excluded. Former President Lee is serving a sentence after a final conviction, while former President Park's trial is still ongoing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.