South Korea’s ex-president, Lee Myung-bak has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in a Seoul court on Friday on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, and was also ordered to pay a 13 billion won ($11.5m; £8.8m) fine.
Lee becomes the fourth South Korean former leader to be jailed, after his immediate successor, Park Guen-hye was sentenced to 33 years in jail in April.
Lee was not present at the sentencing, blaming poor health.
The judge at Seoul Central District Court said “heavy punishment for the accused is inevitable” because of the serious nature of the crimes.
The ex-president was accused to have accepted billions from major electronics firm Samsung in exchange for pardoning its chairman, Lee Kun-hee. Samsung has denied the accusations.
Links between political leaders and large family-owned conglomerates known as chaebols have often come under scrutiny, or been the focus of criminal allegations.