Ministry of Justice to Hold Parole Review Committee Next Week... President Yoon's Mother-in-Law Included in Review

The Ministry of Justice will hold a parole review committee meeting next week to deliberate on the scale and candidates for parole. It is reported that Choi Eun-soon (77), the mother-in-law of President Yoon Seok-yeol, is included among the candidates for this review.

According to the legal community on the 18th, the Ministry of Justice will hold the regular April parole review committee meeting on the 23rd at the Government Complex Gwacheon. The parole review committee is known to hold eligibility reviews for parole around the 20th of each month and issue decisions of eligible, ineligible, or deferred for the candidates under review.

Choi Eun-soon, mother-in-law of President Yoon Seok-yeol. [Image source=Yonhap News]

To be listed as an eligible candidate for the parole review committee, one must first pass a preliminary parole review at each correctional facility, which is usually conducted around the 10th of the month prior to the month when the eligibility review is held.

According to Article 119 of the Act on the Execution of Sentences and Treatment of Prisoners (Execution of Sentences Act), the parole review committee, which examines parole eligibility, is established under the Minister of Justice.

According to Article 120 of the same law, the parole review committee consists of five to nine members including the chairperson, with the Vice Minister of Justice serving as the chairperson. Members are appointed or commissioned by the Minister of Justice from among judges, prosecutors, lawyers, Ministry of Justice officials, and persons with extensive knowledge and experience in corrections.

If the parole review committee issues a parole eligibility decision for a candidate during its meeting, the final decision on parole is made after the approval of Park Sung-jae, the Minister of Justice.

Under current law, a person sentenced to imprisonment without labor can be paroled after serving one-third of their sentence. Generally, candidates must meet the sentence execution rate criteria (50% to 90%) to be considered for the preliminary parole review. The sentence execution rate criteria applied to each inmate vary slightly depending on the crime and its severity.

Choi, who was indicted on charges including forgery of a balance certificate and sentenced to one year in prison, was detained immediately after the second trial verdict and has been serving her sentence at Seoul Eastern Detention Center since July last year. Her sentence is set to expire in July this year. It is reported that she has surpassed 70% of her sentence, making her eligible for parole review.

Choi was also considered for parole review in February but was not included in the final list. At that time, she was reviewed through a procedure that mechanically included inmates who had passed a certain execution rate.

Those classified as ineligible are typically excluded from the review list the following month. After the February review, Choi was excluded from the March review list but appears to have been included again this month.

If Choi is selected as a parole candidate this month, she will be released on the 30th.