Samsung heir's fate hinges on external committee

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 07:54

Law & Crime

Samsung heir's fate hinges on external committee

Posted : 2020-06-09 20:31

Updated : 2020-06-09 20:39

Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, gets into a car after leaving a detention center in Euiwang, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, after the Seoul Central District Court rejected an arrest warrant for him. Yonhap

By Kim Se-jeong

After the court dismissed the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant for Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, eyes are now on an external committee which is set to discuss the validity of Lee's indictment.

The 15-person panel is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the case. The planned meeting will only cover whether or not they will take the case for review, and if they agree to take it, another round of meetings will be scheduled.

While many local outlets said the review will be influenced by the court decision, Prof. Han Sang-hee who teaches law at Konkuk University said the result could be affected by the panel not taking up the case.

"When you read the court's statement, it indicates Lee should be tried. Given that, I think there are possibilities that the panel supports the prosecution by dropping the case," Han said.

A statement released by the Seoul Central District Court stated, "It seems that prosecutors have obtained a good amount of evidence, but they haven't explained why they need to detain Lee. It would be appropriate to determine whether the suspects are responsible through trials."

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Besides Lee, the court also reviewed the arrest warrant for two other former-Samsung Group employees.

The panel's review results are not binding, but historically the panel reviews have influenced the prosecution's moves. Statistics showed in more than 90 percent of cases, the prosecution accepted the review results.

The court's decision came at 2 a.m. Tuesday, after a hearing which lasted for over eight hours.

Leaving a detention center where he had waited for the decision, Lee refused to answer questions from journalists gathered outside, giving them nothing but a brief greeting.

The 51-year-old has been under investigation on suspicions of stock manipulation and illegal trading during the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, the group's two business units in 2015.

The prosecution accused Lee, as the largest shareholder of Cheil Industries, of attempting to lower the price of Samsung C&T, in order to gain stakes in the merged organization which could eventually help him keep his grip on the Samsung group.

Separately, he allegedly inflated the value of Samsung Biologics Co. Ltd, whose largest shareholder was Cheil Industries.

Samsung dismissed the allegations as groundless.

Tuesday's proceeding was separate from an ongoing retrial of Lee.

In 2017, Lee was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye and her confidante. He was released in 2018 with an appeal's court's suspended sentence. But he was back in the court last year after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial for him in August.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr