Friday July 1, 2005
SEOUL: Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice president Kim Un-yong (pic) was released from prison yesterday after serving only part of his two-year prison term for corruption.
Un-yong, 74, whose right eye was bandaged, made no comment to journalists as he left the detention centre in the southern suburbs of the capital.
One of the world's most powerful sports officials and one of the key IOC members until his dramatic fall from grace, Un-yong was originally sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a South Korean court in June last year.
He was convicted of embezzling 3.3 billion won (US$3.26mil) from sports bodies, including the World Taekwondo Federation which he had founded, and accepting 780 million won in bribes from business contacts.
Un-yong, a former South Korean National Assembly member and the highest IOC member to be jailed for corruption, has insisted he was wrongly convicted and jailed.
He was released in October to pursue an appeal which ended in defeat at South Korea's Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction in January but approved a lower court decision to reduce his jail term to two years.
Un-yong resigned as IOC vice president in May after IOC president Jacques Rogge informed him by letter that the IOC's executive body would recommend his expulsion at the IOC's 117th session in Singapore in July.
He is among some 700 prisoners who were released on parole yesterday, the justice ministry said.
“The ministry decided to release Un-yong under its regulations in which inmates are eligible for parole after serving one third of their prison sentence,” ministry official Chung Yoo-Chul said prior to Un-yong's release.
“In releasing him, we took into consideration that he will not be involved in criminal activity again.”
Un-yong played a key role in winning South Korea the right to host the 1988 Olympics and helped taekwondo become a medal sport in the 2000 Olympics.
His career as a sports administrator spans more than three decades after he rose to prominence in 1971 when he was named as head of South Korea's taekwondo association. He was co-opted to the IOC in 1986.
Un-yong was severely admonished over the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City bribery scandal that saw 10 IOC members ousted for corruption. – AFP
Source from http://www.thestar.com.my
No comments:
Post a Comment