Samsung scion Lee walks free

Jay Y. Lee left a South Korean jail a free man after judges suspended his sentence.

seoul — Samsung heir Lee Jaeyong was freed on Monday after a South Korean appeals court gave him a 2½-year suspended jail sentence for corruption in connection with a scandal that toppled the country’s president.

The Seoul High Court softened the original ruling against Lee, rejecting most of the bribery charges levelled against Lee by prosecutors who sought a 12year prison term.

While the ruling clears the way for the Samsung vice-chairman to resume his role at the helm of the industrial giant founded by his grandfather after a year in prison, he faces a slew of challenges outside prison.

Chief among them will be winning trust that he is capable of running South Korea’s biggest company, and assuaging public anger

The past year was a precious time for personal reflection

Lee Jae-yong, Vice-chairman, Samsung

among those who viewed the court’s surprise decision as a setback in the war on corruption.

“The past year was a precious time for personal reflection,” Lee told reporters waiting outside the gates of a detention centre in southern Seoul.

Lee’s first stop from the prison was a Samsung hospital where his father has been hospitalised after suffering a heart attack in 2014.

Lee was charged with offering $38 million in bribes to former President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil, embezzling Samsung funds, hiding assets overseas, concealing proceeds from criminal activities and perjury.