SEOUL: Disgraced former South Korean president Park Geun-hye was convicted of charges including illegally receiving funds from the country’s spy agency on Friday and given eight more years in prison, on top of her current term.

Park, the South’s first fem­ale president, was impeached last year after huge street protests over a sprawling scandal, and was jailed for 24 years for corruption and abuse of power in April.

Friday’s penalty — issued in her absence after she ref­u­sed to attend the Seoul Cen­tral District Court — came after a separate trial for poc­keting money from the Nat­io­nal Intelligence Service (NIS) and improperly intervening in 2016 in the selection of her ruling party’s parliamentary candidates.

The Seoul Central District Court gave Park six years for taking 3.3 billion won ($2.9 million) from the spy agency, and two years for the electoral offence.

The penalties apply consecutively, meaning the 66-year-old now faces a total of 32 years in prison.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018