Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee left a South Korean jail a free man on Monday after a panel of judges suspended his sentence, a surprise decision that sent shockwaves through the country’s political and business establishments.
Coming just days before South Koreans gather to host the Winter Olympics, the ruling reignited an intense public debate over widespread corruption in a case that ousted President Park Geun-hye from office last year and has ensnared leading members of the family-run “chaebol” conglomerates.
Seoul High Court sentenced Lee to two and a half years in jail on charges including bribery and embezzlement – reducing the original term by half – but suspended the sentence for four years, meaning that he is unlikely to serve any more time in jail.
Lee, 49, heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, had been detained since last February.
Emerging from a Seoul detention center where he had briefly returned for his belongings after the ruling, Lee stood in the frigid February air and apologized for “not showing my best side”.
“The past year has been a really valuable time of looking back on myself,” Lee told reporters in a sometimes shaky voice.
He added he needed to visit his ailing father, Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014.
The elder Lee escaped a conviction for embezzlement and tax evasion when he was pardoned by former President Lee Myung-bak, viewed by some as a move to allow the elder Lee to lead the campaign to secure the 2018 Winter Olympics for South Korea.
Coming days ahead of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, the decision to free Jay Y. Lee presents a new headache for President Moon Jae-in, who was elected last year on an anti-corruption platform in the wake of Park’s impeachment.
“This may be a brave decision by the court to look at solid evidence rather than public opinion. But this doesn’t quite fit public opinion calling for Lee’s punishment,” Kim Kyung-soo, a former prosecutor and a criminal lawyer, told Reuters.
