Former president’s doctors receive prison terms

Former President Park Geun-hye’s doctors received prison terms Thursday for treating her without meeting due legal procedures or perjury in relation to the corruption scandal that removed Park from office.

The Seoul Central District Court made the first ruling on figures implicated in the massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal centering on the disgraced former leader and her close friend Choi Soon-sil. Park was ousted and arrested in March.

Dr. Kim Young-jae received 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for giving cosmetic treatments to Park at the presidential office without keeping any official records from 2014 to 2016.

He was also found guilty of lying under oath for denying the fact during a parliamentary hearing in December.

Kim and his wife, Park Chae-yoon, were convicted of giving some 18 million won ($16,000) in bribes to Park’s senior secretary An Chong-bum and his wife between 2014 and 2015.

Kim’s wife was also found to have given an extra 31 million won worth of kickbacks to the couple and 10 million won to another presidential aide between 2015 and 2016. She was sentenced to a year in prison, and Kim was ordered to pay a fine of 3 million won.

Dr. Kim Sang-man was ordered to pay a 10 million-won fine for fabricating medical records to conceal his treatments of Park. The court took into consideration that he inevitably faked the records as the president asked that her identity be concealed and that he did not seem to have gained any profits through the wrongdoing.

Medical professor Chung Kee-yang at Yonsei University was sentenced to a year in prison for perjury. He served as Park’s dermatology consultant from 2013 to 2014.

He is accused of denying during the parliamentary inquiry that he planned to give Park a beauty treatment that was developed by Dr. Kim Young-jae.

“The defendant lied to prevent possible backlashes to himself and his hospital,” the court said. “It is equivalent to lying to the whole nation.”

Lee Im-soon, medical professor at Sunchunhyang University, who was also indicted for perjury, received a 10-month prison term, suspended for two years. The court considered her acknowledgment of her wrongdoing.

At the parliamentary hearing she lied, denying that she introduced Kim Young-jae and his wife to Suh Chang-suk, CEO of Seoul National University Hospital. Kim wanted the hospital to use cosmetic threads that he developed.

Yonhap