By Lee Kyung-min
Defense attorneys for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong reiterated at an appeal hearing Thursday that he only passively had to comply with ousted President Park Geun-hye’s demands.
They categorically denied a lower court’s ruling that sentenced him to five years in prison for bribery and other crimes in August.
The Seoul High Court held the hearing for Lee’s appeal following the Seoul Central District Court ruling that convicted him of bribery, embezzlement, criminally hiding assets abroad and perjury.
The prosecution indicted Lee in February for offering 43.3 billion won ($38.5 million) to Park and her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil in return for political favors to help him secure control of the nation’s largest conglomerate.
Lee did not exercise any authority as a result of what the prosecution dubbed an “illicit favor,” nor were any undue benefits granted to either him or the group, said defense attorney Lee In-jae of the Bae, Kim & Lee law firm. Lee recently joined the defense team for the appeal.
“The prosecution, which defined this case as a corruption between politics and business at the highest level, is simply wrong. It is an assessment made disregarding the unequal relationship between Lee and Park,” he said.
The lower court’s ruling lacked logic, the attorney added, as it recognized favors were “implicitly” made without specifying what the favors were for.
This challenges the lower court’s ruling that recognized the prosecution’s claim that Lee sought favors with the ultimate objective of the group’s power transfer from his bed-ridden father Lee Kun-hee to himself.
“The lower court ruled that implicit favors were made, but clearly said no explicit specific favors were made for the group’s individual issues. In order for that to hold up, the related parties should have had a clear understanding of which issues they were referring to,” he said.
The prosecution rebutted this, saying specific issues were mentioned in the diaries of An Chong-bum, Park’s former presidential secretary.
“The merger of two Samsung units _ Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries _ as well as converting Samsung Life Insurance into a financial holding company were clearly mentioned in An’s diaries. These should be recognized as specific favors,” it said.
It also asked the court to overturn the lower court’s ruling that failed to recognize 20.4 billion won given to the Mir and K-Sports foundations _ set up and controlled by Choi _ as bribery because Samsung gave the money without expecting any favors in return.
The lower court ruled Samsung merely paid the amount to the two foundations to boost public interest, in support of a decision made by the Federation of Korean Industries, a business lobby connected to the scandal.
“Park asked for the group’s support during a one-on-one meeting with Lee. Also, the foundations were set up through presidential secretaries for economic affairs, who oversee business affairs and have major influence, not presidential secretaries for culture and sports affairs, who should have handled the issue,” the prosecution said.
“Former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo asked business groups to give money for what they called political development. Ostensible reasons for asking for money have no bearing on where the funds were actually spent,” it said.
Attorney Lee said the diaries should be dismissed as evidence, citing hearsay.
“An wrote memos after Park told him what happened during the one-on-one meetings. He was never present at the meetings himself, which makes his memos all hearsay. Without Park’s signature or stamp of authorization, those diaries should not be recognized as evidence.”
However, the prosecution said the memos were consistent with testimony and statements from other witnesses, and thus should be recognized as evidence.
The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19.