Prosecution seeks 6-year prison term for Chun Doo-hwan’s son

Prosecutors on Monday sought a six-year prison term for a son of disgraced former President Chun Doo-hwan for alleged tax evasion in a 2006 land deal.

Chun Jae-yong, the second of the former president’s three sons, is standing trial on charges of colluding with his uncle to dodge

2.7 billion won (US$2.4 million) in transfer taxes in the process of selling a plot of land in December 2006.

Prosecutors also demanded that the uncle, Lee Chang-seok, be put behind bars for five years on the same charge.

“(The defendants) abandoned their legal obligation to pay taxes despite higher social responsibility as family members of the former president,” prosecutors said during a hearing on Lee’s case at the Seoul Central District Court.

The former president, who seized power in a military coup in 1979, was ordered by the Supreme Court in 1997 to return to state coffers some 220 billion won he had accumulated illegally while in office from 1980 to 1988.

Chun had refused to make most of the payment and claimed he was almost penniless, prompting prosecutors to launch an investigation into Chun’s family to collect his ill-gotten wealth.

A sentencing trial for the younger Chun and Lee will be held on Feb. 12, court officials said. (Yonhap)