S.Korean court frees Samsung heir for bribery charge

Seoul, Jan 19 (IANS) 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.