South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a nine-year prison sentence for Samsung’s de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, during his bribery scandal, in which Lee apologized and promised not to be involved in similar allegations in an apparent plea for mitigation.
The case is a key element in an explosive 2016 scandal that sparked months of public protests and overthrew the president of South Korea. A verdict on Lee could send him back to jail on charges that he bribed former president Park Geun-hye and her longtime confidant to gain government support for his pressure to strengthen his control over Samsung.
The retrial comes after Lee came under intense pressure to navigate Samsung’s transition after his father and Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-Hee died in October.
A prosecution team led by independent lawyer Park Young-soo has sued the Seoul Supreme Court to put Lee in jail. They said Samsung had “more actively sought unfair advantages” than other companies in the 2016 scandal. Prosecutors said Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, “should set the example” for efforts to eradicate corruption.
“Samsung is a business group with overwhelming power, and it is even said that South Korean companies are in Samsung and non-Samsung,” the prosecutors said. “The rule of law and the principle of egalitarianism … are meant to punish those in power and those with economic power in accordance with the equal standard.”
Prosecutors also asked the court to sentence three former Samsung drivers to seven years in prison and another former executive to five years.
Lee, 52, vice president of Samsung Electronics, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 for offering $ 8.6 billion in bribes to Park and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil. But he was released in early 2018 after the Seoul Supreme Court shortened his term to 2 years and suspended his sentence, overturning key convictions and reducing bribes.
Last year, the Supreme Court returned the case to the Supreme Court and ruled that the amount of Lee’s bribe was undervalued. It is said that the money Samsung spent to buy three racehorses used by Choi’s equestrian daughter and a winter sports foundation run by Choi’s cousin should also be bribed.
During Wednesday’s court hearing, Lee’s lawyers said the basic nature of the 2016 scandal was over former President Park’s abuse of power that infringes on the freedom and property rights of businesses. The lawyers said Lee and the other former Samsung executives involved in the scandal could not withstand the pressure from Park and Choi and that they and Samsung had not received any special favor from Park’s government.
Lee apologized on the matter, saying that “everything is my fault” and that “I deeply regret and am ashamed.” Lee said he would never undertake activities that could cause misunderstandings, and promised to focus on contributing to South Korean society.
Lee also reiterated his earlier promise not to transfer the management rights to his children and to stop suppressing workers’ efforts to organize unions.
According to South Korean media reports, the Supreme Court in Seoul will deliver its verdict on January 18.
In September, prosecutors separately charged Lee with stock price manipulation, breach of trust and breaches of the audit related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung subsidiaries that helped strengthen Lee’s control of the group’s crown jewel, Samsung Electronics. .
Lee’s lawyers denied the allegations, calling them ‘unilateral claims’. They say the merger in 2015 was ‘normal business’.