Park Geun-hye had served nearly five years of a 20-year prison sentence over a scandal that also led to the imprisonment of the chiefs of two conglomerates, Samsung and Lotte.

Park Geun-hye has denied wrongdoing in the corruption charge that led to her downfall in 2017, but several courts have upheld the initial ruling including a retrial last year.

Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was formally convicted of an array of corruption charges and sentenced to 24 years in prison on Friday, a year after she was driven from office and arrested over a scandal that saw months of massive street rallies calling for her ouster.