A court in South Korea has refused a request by prosecutors to issue an arrest warrant for Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong.<\/p>\n
The judge ruled early on Thursday that there was insufficient reason to arrest Mr Lee over accusations of bribery, embezzlement and perjury.<\/p>\n
Mr Lee had been waiting for the ruling overnight since a hearing on Wednesday.\u00a0 The allegations were part of a corruption scandal which led parliament to impeach President Park Geun-hye. Samsung, which has consistently denied any wrongdoing, said in a statement that the “merits of this case can now be determined without the need for detention”.<\/p>\n
President Park is accused of abusing her position by colluding with a close friend, Choi Soon-sil, to use their relationship to secure millions of dollars from major companies. The money was allegedly paid into Ms Choi’s non-profit foundations in exchange for favourable government treatment.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege that Samsung paid 43bn won ($36.3m; \u00a329.8m) to secure government support for a controversial merger of two of its affiliates.\u00a0 Samsung has acknowledged making the payments<\/a> but insists it did not expect anything in return.<\/p>\n South Korea’s special prosecutors had declared Mr Lee a criminal suspect and made a formal request for an arrest warrant<\/a> earlier this week.\u00a0 But the judge ruled that after reviewing the evidence it was “difficult to acknowledge the necessity and substantiality of an arrest at the current stage”.<\/p>\n Opposition MPs said the decision was “regrettable” and ignored the strength of public sentiment.<\/p>\n Correspondents say prosecutors’ hopes of stretching criminal proceedings to include the president may have been knocked off course by the refusal to issue a warrant against Mr Lee.<\/p>\n Samsung is South Korea’s most high-profile company, and its sales are equal to about a fifth of the country’s GDP.<\/p>\n Mr Lee is currently vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics but since his father, Lee Kun-hee, suffered a heart attack in 2014, he is considered de facto boss of the entire Samsung Group conglomerate.<\/p>\n Ms Park, who has faced massive public protest in recent months, has been stripped of her presidential powers<\/a> while the constitutional court considers her impeachment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source\u00a0 bbc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"