SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee arrived at the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday (January 18), where a judge will decide whether he should be arrested over his alleged role in a corruption scandal that has rocked South Korea.
The 48-year-old Lee, wearing a dark overcoat and purple necktie, did not answer questions from reporters, who tried to stall him at one point, as he entered the court building.
A special prosecutor on Monday (January 16) said it would seek a warrant to arrest the third-generation leader of the country’s largest conglomerate on suspicion of bribery, embezzlement and perjury.
Lee, questioned last week for 22 straight hours at the prosecutor’s office in Seoul, has denied wrongdoing.
The influence-peddling scandal led parliament last month to impeach President Park Geun-hye, a decision that if upheld by the Constitutional Court will see her become the country’s first democratically-elected leader forced from office early. Park, 64, has denied wrongdoing.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and it is possible that the judge’s decision may not be announced until after midnight, a court official told Reuters on Tuesday (January 17).
The special prosecutor has accused Lee of paying bribes totalling 43 billion won ($36.70 million) to organisations linked to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the centre of the scandal, to secure the 2015 merger of two affiliates and cement his control of the family business.
Jay Y. Lee became the group’s de facto leader after his father, Lee Kun-hee, was incapacitated by a 2014 heart attack.
The group’s flagship, Samsung Electronics, is the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, flatscreen TVs and memory chips.