INTERNATIONAL: South Korea's President Moon Jae-in granted a pardon to former President Park Geun-hye, who is in prison after being convicted of corruption, the justice ministry said on Friday, amid a tight presidential race.

A South Korean court has sentenced Park to 24 years in jail on April 6, 2018, over the scandal that exposed webs of corruption between political leaders and the country's conglomerates. The court also demanded $16.9 million fine, after finding her guilty of charges that included bribery, abuse of power and coercion.

Park Geun-hye was born on February 2, 1952 and is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, who seized power in a 1961 coup and ruled for 18 years until he was gunned down in 1979.

Park served as acting first lady after her mother was killed in 1974 by an assassin's bullet intended for her father. Five years later, in 1979, Park's father was murdered by his disgruntled security chief.

Park entered politics in her mid-40s to help her country as it spiralled into economic turmoil at the height of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Park, 69, became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote in 2017 to impeach her over a scandal that also landed the heads of two conglomerates, including Samsung Electronics, in jail.

She was brought down after being found guilty of colluding with a confidante to receive tens of billions of won from family and fund nonprofit foundations she owned.

On July 20, 2018, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Park, who has already received a 24-year jail term over separate corruption charges, to eight more years in prison after finding her guilty on charges of causing loss of government funds and interfering in a 2016 parliamentary election.

^{PHOTO: FILE FOOTAGE OF FORMER SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT PARK GEUN-HYE}