S.Korea prosecutors undecided on further arrest warrant request for Samsung chief

SEOUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) - South Korea's special prosecutor's office said on Thursday it has not decided whether to make another arrest warrant request for Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee after a court rejected its first request. Lee, who had been questioned for 22 hours last week and was held overnight on Wednesday while the court reached its decision, left the Seoul Detention Centre carrying a white shopping bag and climbed into a car without talking to reporters. Samsung said “the merits of this case can now be determined without the need for detention.”

It is not uncommon in South Korea to issue an arrest warrant past midnight for important cases that have many contentious issues, said Shin Jae-hwan, a spokesman for the Seoul court. Lee Jae-yong, the 48-year-old vice chairman at Samsung Electronics, faces allegations of embezzlement, of lying under oath during a parliamentary hearing and of offering a bribe of 43 billion won ($36 million) to a long-time friend of impeached President Park Geun-hye, according to Lee Kyu-chul, a spokesman for a special prosecutors’ team investigating the political scandal. The pre-dawn decision by the Seoul Central District Court to allow Jay Y. Lee to go home is likely to come as a major relief to the company, whose leadership vacuum Lee has tried to fill since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014. It will surprise many that prosecutors requested the arrest of the man who symbolizes the future of South Korea’s most important chaebol, as family-controlled conglomerates are known. Ms Park, who has faced massive public protest in recent months, has been stripped of her presidential powers while the constitutional court considers her impeachment.
A court in South Korea strikes down a request by prosecutors to issue an arrest warrant for Samsung vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is accused of bribery and embezzlement, in connection to a corruption scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-hye.