Choi Seo-won temporarily freed from prison amid health concerns

By Ahn Hyo-jung, The Herald Business

Choi Seo-won, formerly known as Choi Soon-sil, who is serving a prison sentence for her role in the state affairs manipulation scandal under the Park Geun-hye administration, has been temporarily released due to deteriorating health. She is 70.

The Cheongju District Prosecutors Office accepted Choi's application for a three-month suspension of sentence execution on Monday, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Choi applied for the suspension after an infection developed at the site of a previous spinal fracture surgery, requiring urgent treatment.

Under current criminal procedure law, a prison sentence may be suspended when continued incarceration poses a significant risk to the inmate's health, when the inmate is 70 or older, or when there is no one to care for elderly direct-line ancestors or young direct-line descendants.

Choi was indicted on charges including abuse of authority and bribery. In 2020, she received a final sentence of 18 years in prison, a fine of 20 billion won (about $13.2 million) and a surcharge of 6.3 billion won, and has since been held at Cheongju Women's Prison.

This is not the first time Choi has been granted a suspension. In 2022, her application was also accepted on grounds of spinal surgery treatment, and she was released for approximately 130 days.