SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday demanded a 30-year jail term for ousted President Park Geun-hye, who was taken into custody a year earlier after having been removed from office.
Prosecutors asked a Seoul court to sentence Park to 30 years in prison and fine her 118.5 billion won (110.5 million U.S. dollars) for corruptions, which they said left an ineffaceable stain in the country's history of constitution.
Park, 66, was ousted from office on March 10, 2017, as the constitutional court upheld an impeachment motion, which the National Assembly already supported. She became the first South Korean leader in the constitutional history to be impeached while in office.
The ousted president was taken into custody in late March, and was indicted on 18 counts of corruption, including abuse of power and bribery.
Prosecutors said that Park privatized her presidential power mandated by people and damaged constitutional value, while denying all charges against her during the court hearings.
Park did not appear in the final hearing in protest against the court's decision to extend her detention for six more months in October last year. The court planned to hand down a verdict to Park on April 6.
The prosecution's sentencing request for Park was heavier than its earlier demand for Choi Soon-sil, a decades-long friend of Park who was at the center of the corruption scandal that led to Park's impeachment.
Choi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the first trial, which was wrapped up earlier this month. The prosecution office had demanded a 25-year jail term on Choi.
Prosecutors said Park, as the culprit of the corruption scandal, needs to be heavily punished. Thirty years is the highest jail term by criminal law.
Park was charged with allowing Choi, who had no government position, to abuse presidential power and intervene in government affairs behind the scenes. Park and Choi had been identified as an accomplice by prosecutors.
Choi was accused of encouraging large businesses of South Korea to donate tens of millions of U.S. dollars to two non-profit foundations controlled by Choi.
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and was put under court custody earlier this month as he offered bribes to Choi and Park in return for business favors.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was released from prison earlier this month as he got a jail term of two and a half years with a stay of execution for four years in the appellate court ruling.
The commutation triggered strong criticism of the appellate court, which denied part of Lee's offer of bribes to Choi and Park in exchange for assistance to Lee's inheritance of management control from his ailing father Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized for almost four years.
The younger Lee is the only son of Lee Kun-hee and an heir apparent to Samsung Group, the biggest family-run conglomerate of South Korea.
