A Seoul appeals court on Thursday sentenced a son of disgraced former President Chun Doo-hwan to three years in prison with a four-year stay of execution for tax evasion in a 2006 land deal, upholding a lower court ruling.

The Seoul High Court handed down the sentence to Chun Jae-yong, the second of the former president's three sons, for 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.

The court, also upholding the lower court decision, ordered the younger Chun to pay a fine of 4 billion won.

In the same ruling, the court sentenced the uncle, Lee Chang-seok, to two years and six months in prison with a four-year stay of execution and a fine of 4 billion won for colluding with his nephew.

"The defendants committed an illegal act even after knowing that their acts would be dodging transfer taxes," judge Kim Yong-bin said in his ruling. 

The prosecution's probe into Chun's family was part of the government's efforts to reclaim the fortune of the former military dictator who was convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s.

Chun, who seized power in a military coup in 1979, was ordered by the Supreme Court in 1997 to return to state coffers some 220.5 billion won he had accumulated illegally while in office from 1981 to 1988.

He had refused to make most of the payment, claiming he was almost penniless.

However, under growing public criticism, the family announced in September last year that they would return 170.3 billion won worth of real estate, movables and financial assets to the state.

According to the prosecution Thursday, the state had collected 108.7 billion won, 49 percent of the total value of seized corruption proceeds from Chun's family. 

The prosecution also said it is working closely with U.S. law enforcement agencies to forfeit corruption proceeds that Chun and his relatives are believed to have laundered through a web of nominees and shell companies in both countries. (Yonhap)