Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee has filed an appeal against the five-year jail term he was given for bribery and other charges through his lawyer, according to the Seoul Central District Court’s Web site yesterday.
The Web site did not give any details about the appeal, which will be assigned to a higher court.
The sentencing of the billionaire scion was a watershed for South Korea’s decades-long economic order, which has been dominated by powerful, family-run conglomerates.
Lee’s lawyer has steered media inquiries to Samsung, whose spokeswoman did not have any immediate comment about the appeal against the sentence handed down on Friday.
Lee, the 49-year-old heir to one of the world’s biggest corporate empires, was detained in February on charges that he bribed then-South Korean president Park Geun-hye to help him secure control of the conglomerate that owns Samsung Electronics, the world’s leading smartphone and chip maker.
Under South Korean law, Lee can be kept in detention a maximum four months while a court considers his appeal. This means the appeals court that is assigned the case is likely to try to wrap up its ruling around January next year, criminal lawyers not directly involved in the case said.
Samsung Electronics chief executive Kwon Oh-hyun asked employees to rally around the company.
“I believe all of you must be devastated by the lower court ruling... We management are also distressed,” he wrote yesterday in an internal message to Samsung Electronics staff that was seen by reporters. “Please do the best you can where you are... We management will also lead the way in overcoming the crisis with uncommon resolve.”
Samsung Electronics said in a statement that Lee will keep his status as a member of the firm’s board of directors “unless there is a final determination of guilt.”
Friday’s court ruling has several aspects that open the way for an appeal, the lawyers said.
Samsung’s defense is likely to argue against the interpretation that giving financial support to Park’s confidant Choi Soon-sil is “effectively the same as Park herself receiving it,” the lawyers said.
“Samsung is likely to argue that Lee is not guilty as Samsung’s support of Choi-backed ventures is not the same as giving bribes to the president,” lawyer Byun Hwan-bong said.
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