Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the conglomerate's heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has been behind bars for a couple of months now after he was arrested on charges of bribery, corruption, embezzlement and others. Today was his first appearance in court as the trial has now begun. Reports from the courtroom reveal that he was mostly quiet throughout the hearing today and his laywers did all of the talking.
Aside from confirming his personal details like his name and occupation, Lee remained silent when he was asked by the judge if he wanted to say anything in response to the charges he's fighting. He's being accused of paying bribes to South Korea's impeached President Park Geun-hye through her close friend Choi Soon-sil.
Lee's lawyer told the court that he didn't even know that some financial contributions had been made because that wasn't part of his job. His legal team also told the court that whatever payments that were made by Lee were in response to the requests made by President Park and that he didn't seek any favors from her in return.
However, the special prosecution doesn't feel the same way. “We have secured enough evidence proving that defendant Lee Jae-yong made improper requests to the president,” said Park Young-soo, who is the special prosecutor.
It's going to be a while before the result of this trial comes out but it goes without saying that it's going to have a deep impact on South Korea and if everything goes south, for Lee Jae-yong personally. He stands to face more than 20 years in jail if convicted on all charges.
