Former National Intelligence Service(NIS) chief Won Sei-hoon has been released on parole after serving a sentence for political interference via online posts using the spy agency’s budget under the Lee Myung-bak administration.

Won was released from Anyang Correctional Institution in Gyeonggi Province at around 10 a.m. Monday, getting into a waiting vehicle without a statement while around 20 supporters cheered him on.

The former intel chief was convicted for using the NIS’ budget to operate a group of online posters who perpetuated negative rumors about late presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.

He was also sentenced in 2021 to nine years in prison and seven years of restricted rights for giving former President Lee Myung-bak 200 million won, or some 150-thousand U.S. dollars, from the spy agency's special operations expenses

In 2018, he was also hit with a four-year sentence for election-meddling and another 14 months for bribery.

Won was serving a total of 14 years and two months when President Yoon Suk Yeol cut his remaining seven-year term by half to three and a half years with a New Years special pardon some eight months before Monday’s release on parole.