South Korea's top court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced former President Lee Myung-bak to 17 years in prison on bribery and embezzlement charges.

In its ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court also upheld a fine totaling 13 billion won and a forfeiture of five-point-78 billion won.

Lee had been on trial for charges of embezzling some 35 billion won from DAS, an auto parts company, and accepting about 16 billion won in bribes, including around 12 billion won from Samsung Electronics.

In October 2018, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee to 15 years, after concluding that he had embezzled more than 24 billion won from the auto parts company and received eight-point-five billion won in bribes. It also found that Lee was the de facto owner of DAS, which he had denied. 

An appeals court increased the prison term to 17 years earlier this year due to the increased amount of bribery that he was found guilty of.