Samsung chief staves off arrest
Prosecutor vows to keep chasing as court allows Lee to go home
A South Korean court on Thursday denied a special prosecutor clearance to arrest the head of Samsung Group, the country’s largest company, amid a graft scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.
But Lee Jae-yong, who has led Samsung since his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, was still likely to face the same charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury, legal analysts said.
The pre-dawn decision by the Seoul Central District Court to allow him to go home was welcomed by Samsung.
The 48-year-old left the Seoul Detention Center carrying a white shopping bag and climbed into a car without talking to reporters, having been held overnight as the court deliberated whether to grant the arrest warrant.
After being refused, a spokesman for the prosecutor said there would be no let up in the investigation.
The prosecutor’s office has accused Lee of paying multimillion dollar bribes to Park’s confidant, Choi Soon-sil, the womanattheheartofthescandal, to win support from the National Pension Service for a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung Group affiliates.
The merger helped cement Lee’s control over the smartphones-to-biopharmaceuticals business empire. He has denied wrongdoing.
Thejudgesaidinastatement on his ruling that an arrest was not necessary — for now.
“Afterreviewingthecontents and the process of the investigation so far, ... it is difficult to acknowledge the necessity and substantialityofanarrestatthe current stage,” he said.
The special prosecutor’s office said it deeply regretted the ruling. “We will consider necessary measures and continue with the investigation without wavering,” spokesman Lee Kyu-chul said.
Lee Jung-jae, a lawyer and former prosecutor, said he didn’t think the special prosecutor would push for Lee’s detention again.
“They probably already have as much evidence as they could gather,” he told Reuters. “They will indict him eventually, but without detention.”
Samsung said in an emailed statement that it appreciated “the fact that the merits of this case can now be determined without the need for detention”.
The group’s flagship, Samsung Electronics, is the world’s biggestmakerofsmartphones, flat-screen televisions and memory chips.
Stripped of powers
The special prosecutor’s office on Monday said it was seeking an arrest warrant for Lee for paying bribes totaling 43 billion won ($37 million) to organizations linked to Choi to secure the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T Corp and Cheil Industries.
Park, 64, was impeached last month by Parliament over the influence-peddling scandal. If the decision is upheld by the Constitutional Court, she will become South Korea’s first elected leader to be forced from office early.
Park, who remains in office but stripped of her powers while the court decides her fate, and Choi have denied wrongdoing.
The special prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday it had evidence that Park and Choi shared profits gained through bribery payments, but did not elaborate.