The bedridden head of South Korea’s Samsung Group has given up his International Olympic Committee (IOC) membership, the Olympics governing body announced on Friday.
“The IOC EB [executive board] was informed that the family of Mr Lee Kun-hee has asked the IOC not to consider Mr Lee for re-election as an IOC member” when the committee elects nine new members at a session next month in Lima.
Lee was first elected as an IOC member in 1996. He helped secure next year’s Winter Games for Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time during his continued illness,” the committee said in a statement.
The addition of nine new members and the withdrawal of Lee would bring the total number of members to 103, it added.
In 2008, Lee voluntarily gave up his IOC membership after being indicted in a financial and tax evasion case.
Seoul pardoned him in 2009, and the committee reinstated him in February 2010.
Lee has been laid up since a heart attack in 2014.
His eldest son and heir, Lee Jae-yong, has been standing trial since his arrest in February on charges of bribing disgraced former South Korean president Park Geun-hye and her friend Choi Soon-sil.
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