South Korean court hands former president Park another eight years in jail

Thomson Reuters

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean court sentenced former president Park Geun-hye to eight more years in prison on Friday after finding her guilty on charges of causing loss of government funds and interfering in a 2016 parliamentary election.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Park, who has already received a 24-year jail term over separate corruption charges, colluded with her former aides to cause the loss of government funds worth about 30 billion won ($26.49 million) from the National Intelligence Service.

She was also found guilty of interfering in the ruling party's selection of candidates for the parliamentary election.

Park, 66, has denied wrongdoing and was not present in court. She was found guilty by a lower court in April of separate charges including bribery, abuse of power and coercion.

(Reporting by Haejin Choi and Joyce Lee; Editing by Paul Tait)

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