No Pardon for Businesspeople from Moon Jae-in Administration Expected After All

No 3.1 Movement Special Pardons for Lee Jae-yong and Others
Choi Ji-sung and Jang Choong-ki Eligible for Parole
Buddha's Birthday Pardon Difficult Due to Time Constraints
Roh Moo-hyun Government Pardoned Kim Woo-joong and Others

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Moon Jae-in administration, which declared it would not pardon businesspeople who committed corruption and anti-market crimes, appears set to maintain this stance even on the March 1st Independence Movement Day.

According to political and legal circles on the 22nd, the government is not considering a special pardon for business leaders, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, on the March 1st holiday. Instead, they are only under consideration for parole review. The Ministry of Justice will hold the second parole review committee meeting on the 23rd to discuss the candidates. It has been confirmed that former Samsung Electronics Future Strategy Office Chief Choi Ji-sung and former Deputy Chief Jang Choong-ki are included in this review. They have served about two years of their total sentence of two years and six months, meeting the parole requirement that those sentenced to imprisonment with labor under criminal law can be released after serving one-third of their sentence.

A lawyer familiar with the business community in Seocho-dong said, "Parole has many restrictions on economic activities, so its effect is less than that of a pardon." If paroled, under Article 14 of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, employment at financial institutions and companies will be restricted for five years, and they will be under probation, requiring Ministry of Justice approval for overseas travel. In effect, this does not allow a return to frontline management. This was also a controversial issue when Vice Chairman Lee was paroled in August last year. Considering that a pardon on Buddha’s Birthday, May 8, the day before the current administration’s term ends, is physically difficult, the number of pardoned businesspeople during the five years of the Moon Jae-in administration will be zero.

Legal circles analyze that the government has upheld the principle of pardons but, considering domestic and international economic conditions, chose parole as a 'political compromise' instead of a pardon. Some speculate that after the presidential election, the president-elect may request the government to grant a special pardon including businesspeople on Buddha’s Birthday, May 8, the day before the current administration’s term expires, as a measure for national unity and economic revival. During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, considered the starting point for pardoning businesspeople, many business leaders such as former Doosan Group Chairman Park Yong-sung and former Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo-joong were pardoned. The Lee Myung-bak administration pardoned the most, with 107 businesspeople including Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, and Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-yeon. The Park Geun-hye administration pardoned 28 businesspeople, including SK Chairman Choi Tae-won and CJ Chairman Lee Jae-hyun.