IANS | 19 Jan, 2017
A South Korean court on
Thursday rejected a request from prosecutors to detain the Samsung
Group heir apparent, despite alleged charges of bribery, perjury and
embezzlement.
The arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics Vice
Chairman Lee Jae-yong was dismissed by the court, which made a
marathon deliberation for almost 15 hours after the independent
counsel team investigating the scandal involving President Park
Geun-hye requested Lee's detention on Monday.
The rejection
indicated lack of evidence to prove charges, which the special
prosecutors leveled against the Samsung heir, Xinhua news agency
reported.
The court said that it would be hard at the current
stage to acknowledge the necessity for arrest in view of rooms for
dispute.
The country's biggest family-controlled conglomerate,
Samsung, is suspected of bribing President Park's childhood friend
Choi Soon-sil and Choi's daughter in return for getting support from
the national pension fund for the merger in July 2015 of two Samsung
affiliates.
The merger to create a de-facto holding company
was extremely crucial to the heir apparent to inherit the overall
management control from his ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee who
has been hospitalized for over two and a half years for heart
attack.
Prosecutors contended that Park and Choi had shared
private interests, saying Samsung provided about 43 billion won ($37
million) in financial assistance to two foundations and a German
company controlled by Choi.
In exchange for the kickbacks,
President Park is suspected of ordering the former health and welfare
minister, who is now in custody, to pressure the National Pension
Service (NPS) into voting for the Samsung merger.