Samsung Group heir Lee walks free as South Korea court suspends jail term

SEOUL — A South Korean appeals court on Monday suspended a jail sentence handed down to Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee, setting him free after a year’s detention amid a corruption scandal that brought down the former president.

Seoul High Court jailed Lee for two and a half years, reducing the original term by half, and suspended the sentence for charges including bribery and embezzlement for four years, meaning he does not have to serve time as long as he behaves.

Lee, 49, heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, had been detained since last February.

Emerging from Seoul Detention Center, Lee said his time in jail had been useful.

“Again, I feel sorry to everyone for not showing my best side. And it has been a really precious time for a year reflecting on myself,” Lee told reporters.

He added he needed to visit his ailing father, Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014.

“It’s a positive thing that the owner is returning,” said Greg Roh, a stock analyst at HMC Investment & Securities. “...it could be good that the owner returns to set standards in such a rapidly changing time.”

Shares in flagship Samsung Electronics, of which Lee is vice-chairman, reversed earlier losses and closed up 0.5% compared to a 1.3% fall in the wider market.

President Park Geun-hye was dismissed in March after being impeached in a case that brought scrutiny to the cosy ties between South Korea’s chaebols — big family-owned corporate groups — and its political leaders. —