Ministry of Justice Denies Allegations, States "Proper Review Conducted During Pardon of Fisheries Businessman Kim Mo"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] On the 6th, the Ministry of Justice refuted allegations of a special pardon involving Kim Mo (43, currently incarcerated), a fisheries businessman who exposed that bribes were given extensively to active senior prosecutors, police superintendents, and journalists, stating that "there were no special circumstances in the procedure."

The Ministry of Justice issued a statement that day explaining the pardon process at the time and dismissed the suspicions raised by the opposition parties.

The Ministry stated, "Regarding the 2018 New Year's special pardon, the Minister of Justice properly reviewed the pardon candidates through the Pardon Review Committee in accordance with relevant laws and submitted the recommendations to the President."

It continued, "The government fairly reviewed this and on December 30, 2017, granted special pardons to 6,444 people, including general criminal offenders and underprivileged prisoners, and there were no special circumstances in the procedure at that time."

Kim was sentenced to two years in prison in 2016 for fraud involving about 100 million won and was released at the end of December 2017 through a special pardon. The government explained that Kim met the pardon criteria by serving 80% of his sentence.

At that time, the Ministry of Justice stated in a press release that among general criminal offenders excluding murder, robbery, organized violence, sexual crimes, and bribery, 831 people who had served more than two-thirds of their sentences were exempted from serving the remainder of their sentences. Kim was included among them.

Earlier, Kim Jae-won, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, raised suspicions of Blue House involvement, saying, "It is extremely unusual to grant a special pardon to a swindler."

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