Cho Kuk, former justice minister and former leader of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party, reportedly appears on the list of candidates for presidential special pardons to be announced ahead of Liberation Day next week.

According to sources from the legal community on Thursday, the justice ministry’s pardon review committee made the decision after a meeting to deliberate on its recommendations to the president. 

Cho is currently serving a two-year prison term for unlawful interference with a government inspection and academic fraud involving his children, after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction in December last year.

Cho has more than a year to go before his scheduled release in December next year. 

Other candidates for special pardons reportedly include Cho’s wife, Chung Kyung-shim; former lawmaker Choe Kang-wook; and Cho Hee-yeon, former superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.