Court adds 8-year jail term to Park Geun-hye

SEOUL - A South Korean court on Friday added an eight-year jail term to impeached President Park Geun-hye, who has been already serving a 24-year prison term, for the loss of state funds and illegal political intervention.

The Seoul Central District Court delivered a guilty verdict to Park in the televised first-trial ruling. She was sentenced to six years in jail and the forfeit of 3.3 billion won (2.9 million US dollars) for the loss of state funds and a separate two-year imprisonment for the illegal political intervention.

Prosecutors indicted the 66-year-old in January on charges that she received 3.5 billion won (3.1 million US dollars) of funds from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the country's spy agency, from May 2013 to September 2016 while she was in office.

It was an untraceable off-book fund used by NIS agents for special activities. Prosecutors claimed it was the bribe, but the court ruled that it was not a kickback for lack of proof that there were favors in return for the fund.

Park was known to have used the NIS fund for private purposes, such as paying maintenance costs for her private residence in southern Seoul, buying new clothes and paying bills for secret phones she used to contact Choi Soon-sil, Park's longtime confidante who was embroiled in a series of corruption scandal that led to Park's impeachment.

Park was ousted from office in March last year and brought into custody weeks later. She became the first South Korean president to be impeached while in office.

The ousted leader was also accused of illegally interfering with then-ruling Saenuri Party's nomination of candidates in the 2016 parliamentary elections to help candidates loyal to Park be elected in the elections. A president in South Korea is required to remain politically neutral in elections.