January 18th – On the 18th, the Seoul High Court of South Korea retrialed Lee Jae-di’s “confidant interference in politics” case in the second instance, sentenced him to two years and six months’ imprisonment, and Lee Jae-jk was arrested in court.
Yonhap said that the two-and-a-half-year sentence is basically a foregone conclusion, and even if the appeal is appealed, there is little possibility of turning the situation over.
In addition to the case of “confident interference in politics”, Li Zai was also prosecuted for suspected illegal inheritance of business rights.
Li Zai, 52 years old, is the vice president of Samsung Electronics and the actual head of Samsung Group.
In November 2016, he was involved in the case of “confidant interference in politics” and was investigated by the prosecution for four years.
Yonhap said that if you are not satisfied with the two-and-a-half-year sentence, either prosecutor and Lee Jae-dyu can appeal, but the Supreme Court is likely to upheld the sentence.
Previously, on August 29, 2019, all the judges of the Supreme Court appeared in court and made a final judgment on the case of Li Zaiying’s “confidant interference in politics” and sentenced the case to be remanded for retrial.
According to prosecution allegations, in February 2017, Lee Jae-ho was suspected of paying bribes to former South Korean Presidents Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon to help them inherit business rights, with bribes amounting to 29.8 billion won (about 175 million yuan).
The court of first instance found Li Zaiji guilty of part of the crime of bribery and sentenced him to five years in prison.
The court of second instance sentenced him to two and a half years in prison and four years’ probation.
Li was released in court. In August 2019, in its final judgment, the Supreme Court of South Korea quashed the judgment of the Court of Second Instance against Lee Jae-hye-hye and Choi Soon-sil, and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court for retrial.
