S.Korea's Moon rejects pardon for former presidents

ANKARA (AA) - South Korea's president on Monday rejected any early moves to offer a special pardon for his two incarcerated predecessors, convicted and jailed of corruption charges, local media reported.

During his New Year's news conference, President Moon Jae-in said it was too early to speak about granting pardon to former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

"The imprisonment of the two former presidents is a very unfortunate incident nationally," the agency quoted Moon as saying.

He added that both Park and Lee had denied charges against them and refused to accept the court rulings.

"The move to give Park and Lee special pardons will not be accepted by the people's common sense and I can't accept those either."

Referring to the charges against his jailed predecessors, Moon said it was "very unfortunate" to see them behind the bars, but their acts of misconduct did the nation a lot of harm.

His statement came after the chairman of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), Lee Nak-yon, earlier this month said that he would ask the president to grant pardons to the former leaders.

On Thursday, South Korea's top court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for former president Park Geun-hye, the country's first female leader, over corruption.

Earlier in October, the country's top court upheld a 17-year prison sentence of former president Lee Myung-bak on corruption charges.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid