SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday requested a nine-year prison term for Samsung’s de facto boss Lee Jae-yong during his new bribery trial, where Lee apologized and he vowed not to be implicated in similar allegations in an apparent request for clemency.
The case is a key element in a 2016 explosive scandal that sparked months of public protests and overthrew the president of South Korea. A decision on Lee could send him back to prison on charges that he bribed the ex President Park Geun-hye and his longtime confidant to get government support to solidify his grip on Samsung.
The retrial comes at a time when Lee faces enormous pressure to navigate Samsung’s transition after his father and Samsung Electronics president Lee Kun-Hee died in October.
A team of prosecutors led by independent lawyer Park Young-soo demanded that Lee be sentenced to prison by the Seoul Supreme Court. They said Samsung “actively pursued unfair benefits” than other companies in relation to the 2016 scandal. Prosecutors said Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, should “set an example” in efforts to eradicate corruption .
“Samsung is a business group with overwhelming power, and there is even a saying that South Korean companies are divided into Samsung and not Samsung,” prosecutors said in the final comments. “The rule of law and the principle of egalitarianism … aim to punish those in power and those with economic power according to the standard of equality.”
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 president of Samsung Electronics, was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for offering 8.6 billion won ($ 7 million) in bribes to Park and his longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil. But he was released in early 2018 after the Seoul Supreme Court reduced his term to two and a half years and suspended his sentence, overturning the main convictions and reducing the value of his bribes.
Last year, the Supreme Court referred the case back to the higher court, ruling that the value of Lee’s bribes had been devalued. He said the money Samsung spent to buy three racehorses used by Choi’s equestrian daughter and finance a winter sports foundation run by Choi’s niece should also be considered a bribe.
During Wednesday’s court session, Lee’s lawyers said the basic nature of the 2016 scandal was about former President Park’s abuse of power that violated companies’ freedom and property rights. The lawyers said Lee and the other former Samsung executives involved in the scandal were unable to resist pressure from Park and Choi and that they and Samsung received no special favor from the Park government.
Lee apologized for the case, saying that “everything is my fault” and that “I deeply regret it and am ashamed of myself”. Lee said he would never engage in any activity that could cause misunderstandings and promised to focus on making contributions to South Korean society.
Lee also reiterated his earlier promise not to pass management rights on to his children and to stop suppressing employees’ attempts to organize unions.
The Seoul Supreme Court is due to issue a ruling on January 18, according to South Korean media reports.
In September, prosecutors separately indicted Lee on charges of stock price manipulation, breach of trust and audit violations related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung affiliates that helped strengthen Lee’s control over the group’s crown jewel. , Samsung Electronics.
Lee’s lawyers denied the charges, calling them “unilateral claims”. They say the 2015 merger was “normal business activity”.