Samsung chief will not appeal two-and-a-half-year jail term, says lawyer
25 January, 2021
The de facto chief of South Korea's Samsung business empire will "humbly accept" the court ruling that sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison for corruption and will not appeal, his attorney said on Mon (Jan 25).
Lee Jae-yong, vice-chairman of Samsung Consumer electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and storage chip maker, was found guilty of bribery and embezzlement regarding the the scandal that brought straight down ex - president Park Geun-hye.
The Seoul Central District Courtroom jailed him in a retrial last week, the latest part of a long-running legal approach that has hung over Samsung for a long time.
But the decision never to appeal could imply that Samsung is looking to pull a line beneath the issue: As time passes already dished up, Lee will be eligible for parole as soon as September - provided that prosecutors usually do not successfully charm for an extended sentence.
"Vice-chairman Lee will humbly accept the ruling and offers decided not to appeal," his attorney Lee In-jae explained in a statement.
The 52-year-old was initially jailed for five years in 2017, after Park's ouster.
He walked free the following season when an appeals courtroom dismissed almost all of his bribery convictions and gave him a good suspended sentence, but the Supreme Court down the road ordered Lee to face a retrial.
Provided that Lee has recently served around a 12 months in prison, he's due for release in July 2022, even without parole, a presidential pardon or a commutation.
Samsung is by much the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates, or perhaps chaebols, that dominate organization in the world's 12th-largest economy.
Its overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national gross domestic product, in fact it is imperative to South Korea's economical health.
Experts have warned an extended leadership vacuum could hamper it is decision-making on potential large-level investments of the kind that have been key to it has the rise.
Source:
TAG(s):