Lee Jae-Yong to be absent from his retrial due to father’s funeral

Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong won’t be able to attend his retrial as he will be at his father Lee Kun-hee’s funeral. He had asked the Seoul High Court to allow his absence from the retrial after his father’s death yesterday. Contrary to its customary practice, the appellate court had asked Lee to appear in the court for the preparatory session.

The retrial related to the famous bribery scandal resumed last month. The Supreme Court struck down the complaint lodged by the prosecution in January to replace the judges who had ruled favorably. With Lee’s absence, the retrial’s preparatory session will be attended by the prosecution team and Lee’s legal team.

Lee Jae-Yong was initially sentenced to five years of prison after he was found guilty of bribing a longtime friend (Choi Soon-Sil) of former South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. In return, he took their help in the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T in order to take the control of Samsung Group from his ailing father. The jail term was then reduced to 2.5 years and he was freed a year later after the bribery charges against him were dismissed.

The Supreme Court, however, sent the case back to the lower court in August for retrial. It said that the junior Lee should be found guilty of providing $4.1 million worth of bribes, including three horses that were worth $2.8 million. The earlier ruling had excluded them from bribery charges since Samsung didn’t give Choi the ownership of the horses.

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