Samsung heir wins suspended jail term on appeal

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was freed Monday after a South Korean appeals court gave him a two-and-a half-year suspended jail sentence for corruption in connection with a scandal that toppled the country's president.

The Seoul High Court softened the original ruling against Lee, rejecting most of the bribery charges levelled against Lee by prosecutors who sought a 12-year prison term.

While the ruling clears the way for the Samsung vice-chairman to resume his role at the helm of the industrial giant founded by his grandfather after a year in prison, he faces a slew of challenges outside prison.

Chief among them will be winning trust that he is capable of running South Korea's biggest company, and assuaging public anger among those who viewed the court's surprise decision as a setback in the war on corruptions.

"The past year was a precious time for personal reflection," Lee told reporters waiting outside the gates of a detention centre in southern Seoul.

Lee's first stop from the prison was a Samsung hospital where his father has been hospitalised after suffering a heart attack in 2014.

Lee was charged with offering US$38 million in bribes to former President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil, embezzling Samsung funds, hiding assets overseas, concealing proceeds from criminal activities and perjury.

The appeals court said Lee was unable to reject the then president's request to financially support her confidant and was coerced into making the payments. The court still found Lee guilty of giving 3.6 billion won (US$3.3 million) in bribes for equestrian training of Choi's daughter and of embezzling the money from Samsung funds.

Lee's lawyer, Lee Injae, told reporters that the Samsung vice-chairman still plans to appeal his conviction. Prosecutors also were expected to appeal the court's ruling, making it almost certain the case will go to the Supreme Court.

Lee, 49 and the only son of Samsung's ailing chairman, was given a five-year prison term in August on bribery and other charges linked to a political scandal that took down former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

AP