The Ministry of Justice Pardon Review Committee Concludes... Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye Likely Excluded from Pardon Candidates

Expected Announcement Next Week After Cabinet Meeting Approval on the 28th
Focused on Livelihood-Related Offenders... Including Assembly and Demonstration Offenders

Government Gwacheon Complex, Ministry of Justice. Photo by Choi Seok-jin

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] It was reported on the 21st that former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye were excluded from the New Year's special pardon to be carried out at the end of the year.

The Ministry of Justice Pardon Review Committee held its second plenary meeting on the day following the previous day to deliberate on the scale and candidates for the fifth special pardon under the Moon Jae-in administration. The meeting, which started at 2:30 PM at the Government Complex Gwacheon, lasted about three hours until 5:40 PM.

The Pardon Review Committee, under the Minister of Justice, consists of nine members including one chairman. The chairman, who is the Minister of Justice, appoints or commissions the other members, and the Pardon Act stipulates that at least four members must be non-government officials.

With the selection process for the New Year's special pardon candidates completed, it is expected that Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye will soon report the shortlisted pardon candidates from the committee to President Moon Jae-in.

After approval at the Cabinet meeting on the 28th, once President Moon finalizes the pardon candidates, the list is expected to be announced sometime next week.

On the previous day when the first meeting was held, Minister Park said, "Various standards, principles, and purposes of the pardon have been established," adding, "It will be of considerable scale."

It is widely anticipated that this special pardon will also focus on low-income livelihood-related criminal offenders, specially considered prisoners, and social conflict offenders. The Ministry of Justice reportedly sent official letters last month to frontline prosecutors' offices and correctional institutions requesting them to identify and report lists of livelihood offenders, model prisoners, as well as assembly and protest offenders.

In particular, the Ministry of Justice is said to have cited examples in the official letters such as those involved in protests opposing the amendment to the Minimum Wage Act and protests against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

Although the specific pardon list and scale have not been disclosed, it is known that politicians such as former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, and former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook were excluded from the list.

Meanwhile, after the Ministry of Justice disclosed the medical staff's opinion that former President Park, who is receiving inpatient treatment at Samsung Seoul Hospital, requires more than six weeks of additional hospitalization, some speculated that the Blue House or Ministry of Justice might be considering a suspension of sentence execution for him.

However, on the same day, Minister Park drew a line on the suspension of sentence execution for former President Park, stating, "It has not been reviewed." It is also known that the former President Park's side has no plans to apply for suspension of sentence execution.

Since President Moon took office, the government pardoned 6,444 people in December 2017, followed by 4,378 people on March 1 and 5,174 people at the end of 2019, and 3,024 people in December last year. This pardon is likely to be the last pardon of the Moon Jae-in administration.

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