FORMER S KOREAN PRESIDENT PARK AWARDED 24 YEARS JAIL

A SOUTH KOREAN court jailed former President Park Geun-hye for 24 years on Friday over a scandal that-

Exposed webs of corruption between political leaders and the country's conglomerates.

Park became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office last year when the Constitutional Court ordered her out over a scandal that landed the heads of two conglomerates in jail.

The court also fined Park, the daughter of a former military dictator 18 billion won {$16.9 million} after finding her guilty of charges including bribery, abuse of power and coercion.

''The defendant abused her presidential power entrusted by the people, and as a result, brought massive chaos to the order of state affairs and lead to the-

Impeachment of the president, which was unprecedented,'' judge Kim Se-yoon said as he handed down the sentence.

The court ruled that Park colluded with her old friend, Choi Soon-sil, to receive 23.1 billion won from major conglomerates including Samsung and Lotte to help Choi's family and bank-roll non-profit foundations owned by her.

Park, 66, who has been in jail since March 31 last year, has denied any wrongdoing and was not present in court. [Agencies]