Former S. Korean President Lee Myung-bak back in prison Updated: 2020-11-02 17:09:35 KST

South Korea’s 17th President Lee Myung-bak was put behind bars again on Monday afternoon.
This follows the Supreme Court’s decision last week to confirm a 17-year prison sentence handed down by an appeals court for embezzlement, accepting bribes and other crimes.
The 78-year-old is incarcerated again after 251 days,as he had been out of jail since February after he appealed a court’s decision to deny him bail.
Lee was sent to Seoul Dongbu Detention Center at around 2 PM.
He had served time there for about a year after his arrest in 2018.
He is expected to be detained in a roughly 13-square-meter single cell on the top floorfitted with a television, a mattress, a bathroom as well as a sink and a table.
A personal prison officer will be assigned to help him with his prison life out of deference to his former presidential status.
However, he will undergo physical examinations and a mug shot, and be deprived of his belongings just like other prisoners.
According to procedure, Lee would be moved to a prison in three to four weeks, but there’s a possibility that he serves his remaining 16 years in the detention center instead, given his age and underlying health conditions.
Lee was convicted of embezzling around 30 million U.S. dollars through an auto parts company of which he effectively owned and accepting around 6 million dollars of bribes from Samsung Electronics.
Without a special pardon, he will be released in 2036, at the age of 94.
Choi Jeong-yoon, Arirang News.