Prosecutors seek 9 years in prison for Samsung exec

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday requested a nine-year prison term for Samsung’s de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong, during his bribery retrial, where Lee apologized and vowed not to be implicated in similar allegations in an apparent plea for leniency.

The case is a key element in a 2016 scandal that triggered months of public protests and toppled South Korea’s president.

A ruling on Lee could send him back to prison on charges that he bribed former President Park Geun-hye and her longtime confidant to get the government’s backing for his push to solidify his control over Samsung.

The retrial comes as Lee faces immense pressure to navigate Samsung’s transition after his father and Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-Hee died in October.

A team of prosecutors led by an independent counsel demanded the Seoul High Court sentence Lee to prison.

They said Samsung “more actively sought unjust benefits” than other businesses with regard to the 2016 scandal. The prosecutors said Samsung, which is South Korea’s biggest company, should “set the example” for efforts to root out corruption.

“Samsung is a business group with overwhelming power, and there is even a saying that South Korean companies are divided into Samsung and non-Samsung ones,” the prosecutors said in closing comments. “The rule of law and the egalitarianism principle ... are meant to punish those in power and those with the economic power in line with the equal standard.”

Prosecutors also asked the court to sentence three former Samsung executives to seven years in prison and another former executive to five years.

Lee, 52, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for offering $7 million in bribes to Park and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.

But he was freed in early 2018 after the Seoul High Court reduced his term to 2 ½ years and suspended his sentence, overturning key convictions and reducing the amount of his bribes.