SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) — South Korea’s special prosecutor’s office said on Thursday (January 19) it had not decided whether to make another arrest warrant request for Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee after a court rejected its first.
Earlier in the day, a South Korean court dismissed an arrest warrant against Lee, the head of the country’s largest conglomerate, amid a graft scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.
The office has accused Lee of paying multi-million dollar bribes to Park’s confidant, Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the heart of the scandal, to win support from the National Pension Service for a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung Group affiliates.
The merger helped cement Lee’s control over the smartphones-to-biopharmaceuticals business empire. He has denied wrongdoing.
“Whether Vice President Lee Jaeyong’s arrest warrant will be refiled has not been decided for now. The special prosecutors will thoroughly examine the court’s reasons behind the dismissal, and then decide how to handle this in the future through an internal meeting,” said special prosecution spokesman Lee Kyu-chul.
The spokesman also said Lee had argued that he was a victim of coercion due to pressure from Park, but the prosecution had not been convinced. He added that said Samsung Group Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung had been classified as a suspect on suspicion of bribery but did not elaborate further.
On the streets of South Koera’s capital, some people welcomed the court’s decision but others complained.
“There seems enough proof that Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee has received unfair profit through the recent influence-peddling by Choi Soon-sil and President Park Geun-hye, and it is a shame that the warrant was turned down. If the warrant is to be refiled, I hope it is accepted this time,” said 25-year-old Choi Dong-geon.
“These kinds of indiscriminate attacks towards the heads of the major companies will harm the economy, so it seems right not to arrest him,” added 25-year-old Cho Jeong-woon.
Senior analyst of Research Center and Equity Research Team of IBK Securities, Kim Jang-won, said the dismissal had become “an opportunity to settle anxiety or uncertainty across stock markets.”
Key Samsung Group shares rose following the court decision: Samsung Electronics and Samsung C&T gained 1.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively, outperforming a 0.1 percent gain for the broader market though down from their opening peaks as investors braced for the likelihood of an indictment.