Court considers arrest of Samsung heir

A South Korean court is considering whether to approve the arrest of Samsung Group vice-chairman Lee Jae-yong, one of the country's wealthiest business leaders, on charges of bribery and other offenses.

Lee, the only son of Samsung's chairman, did not speak to a crowd of reporters while arriving and leaving the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday.

After the four-hour hearing he was taken to a detention center to await the court's decision.

If Lee's arrest is approved, prosecutors can detain him for up to 21 days before formally charging him, said the court's spokesman Shin Jae-hwan.

The judge will announce a decision on the arrest warrant early on Thursday morning, Shin said, though the exact timing was unclear.

Samsung is South Korea's biggest family-controlled conglomerate, or chaebol, with businesses encompassing consumer electronics, shipbuilding and life insurance.

Samsung's electronics arms, the group's crown jewel, is the world's biggest maker of smartphones and computer memory chips.

Samsung and its affiliated companies account for about a third of the market value in South Korea's main stock market.

The company had no comment on the hearing.

Samsung had a challenging year even before getting drawn into an influence-peddling scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

In 2016, the company had several product recalls, including the discontinuation of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that tended to overheat or catch fire.

Prosecutors requested Lee's arrest for allegedly bribing Park and a confidante of hers, Choi Soon-sil, who is on trial for meddling in state affairs.

Lee, 48, faces allegations of giving bribes worth 43 billion won ($36 million) to Choi and the president in hopes of winning government backing for a contentious Samsung merger in 2015.

Prosecutors also suspect Lee of embezzling Samsung's corporate funds and of lying under oath during a parliamentary hearing last month.

Lee has been serving as the de facto head of Samsung since his father suffered a heart attack in 2014.

Some business groups and newspapers have urged caution out of concern that arresting Lee could hurt the economy due to Samsung's huge role in South Korean industry.

However, civic groups have urged the court to arrest Lee to show that all are equal before the law.

Many are angered over the allegations that the national pension fund was pressured to support the Lee family's succession plan.

(China Daily 01/19/2017 page12)