South Korea’s former president Park Geun-hye has been sentenced to 24 years in jail after being found guilty of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. She was ousted from office last year during the biggest political corruption scandal to hit Asia’s fourth largest economy in a generation. The verdict in a court in the South Korean capital, Seoul, was broadcast live against the wishes of Ms Park, 66. It followed a ten-month trial that exposed a shady nexus of big business and politics. She has also been fined  £12 million. “The accused is guilty of abuse of power,” said Judge Kim Se Yoon, ruling that Ms Park had forced major conglomerates including Samsung and Lotte to donate a total of  £52 million to two non-profit foundations controlled by her secret confidante, Choi Soon-sil. Ms Park was charged on 18 counts of corruption, including bribery, coercion, abuse of power and leaking state secrets. Prosecutors had demanded a 30 year jail term. Profile | Park Geun-hye She was acquitted in at least two of the charges, including abuse of power relating to forcing Hyundai automobile company to run ads for the company owned by Ms Choi. The  televised trial, which started at 2.10pm in Seoul, took place roughly a year after her arrest in late March 2017. The daughter of assassinated dictator Park Chung-hee, Ms Park rose to fame as the nation’s first female president, but also became the first elected head of state to be ousted. It marked a dramatic downfall for a leader who came to power in 2013, pledging to fight graft. South Korea was shaken by allegations that Ms Choi, 60, noted as a Rasputin-like figure, exploited her relationship with Park to extort donations out of major companies to foundations used for her personal gain, and to get her daughter preferential admission to an elite Seoul university.  Park was accused of taking secret advice from Ms Choi, who had no official position, on everything from North Korea policy to her wardrobe choices. Choi Soon-sil is described as a female Rasputin in South Korea Credit: Kim Hong-Ji/REUTERS The scandal prompted millions to demonstrate and demand the president’s resignation, leading to her impeachment in December 2016. Ms Park was formally removed from office by the Constitutional Court the following March. Her impeachment paved the way for a new Left-leaning government to replace her conservative coalition in an April 2017 election, which eventually opened up the opportunity for negotiations with nuclear-armed North Korea. Park did not appear personally for her sentencing and has boycotted the trial of her case in protest of the court’s October decision to extend her detention by six months. Before her downfall she was long viewed as a tragic figure, estranged from her siblings and traumatised by the earlier murder of her mother who was accidentally shot by a North Korean sympathiser in 1974, forcing Ms Park to become acting first lady aged just 22. It was around this time that Choi Soon-sil’s father, religious cult leader Choi Tae-min became the young Ms Park’s mentor. A US embassy cable released years later by WikiLeaks described his “complete control over the body and soul” of Ms Park in her “formative” political years. She reportedly believed that he could communicate with her dead mother. The public was shocked to learn that forty years later, the cult leader’s daughter had allegedly taken on his mantle as the shadowy power behind the throne. Ms Choi was convicted of bribery, extortion and other criminal charges in February and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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