Seoul: Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak was released on bail on Wednesday after spending a year on detention on corruption charges.
A South Korean lower court had awarded a 15-year jail term to Lee on charges of bribery and embezzlement in October last year.
Lee was accused of taking bribes amounting to 11.1 billion won, which also includes 700 million won from the state intelligence service and 5.85 USD million in lawsuit expenses, wherein multi-national conglomerate Samsung paid on Lee’s behalf of his possible owning of a car parts firm, DAS, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Lee, who served as the nation’s president from 2008 to 2013, filed for a bail plea which was approved by the Seoul High Court in January this year.
The court approved the bail request on January 29 on grounds of ill-health and other reasons.
During the hearing, the court had ordered Lee to pay a bail of 1 billion won and ordered him to stay in his legal residence and meet or communicate with his immediate family members and legal representatives.
However, the former South Korean president requires legal approval for hospital visits and must report the same to the court.
Lee was accused of embezzling about 35 billion won from Samsung and using the money for political and personal gains.
Other charges against Lee included tax evasion, breach of trust, illegally shipping presidential documents out of the country and stashing them at a private building and violation of the country’s election law.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]