Expert panel outcome crucial for Samsung heir

Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, center, leaves the Seoul detention center early Tuesday morning after the Seoul Central District Court rejected the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyun-bin

Samsung leader Lee Jae-yong avoided a second stint in jail when the Seoul Central District Court judge rejected the prosecution's request for an arrest warrant citing insufficient probable cause for his arrest.

It is uncertain whether or not the judge's decision was thanks to Lee's continued backing of South Korea's fight against COVID-19. In line with President Moon Jae-in's drive to address COVID-19 problems as quickly as possible, Lee is putting Samsung at the front of a drive to hugely increase the number and availability of COVID-19 testing kits. The group also offered millions of dollars in aid and loaned out doctors, engineers and a corporate jet. Also, Samsung announced massive investment plans in South Korea as an apparent gesture to back the government's initiatives to improve the virus-hit local economy.

Now, all eyes are on the public assessment results, as Lee requested on June 2 the formation of an external panel to review the validity of the prosecutors' probe.

On Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the judge denied the arrest warrant for Lee that prosecutors had applied for at the end of last week, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office requested both the prosecution and the vice chairman's legal team to submit written opinions regarding the establishment of the panel.

From Samsung's standpoint, the upcoming establishment of the external panel is more than crucial as Samsung could use “views and responses” to be discussed and touch upon at the panel session as its “last card” to clear off allegations of various wrongdoings and other offenses in connection with a controversial merger between the two Samsung units for further legal proceedings.

Lee's legal team hinted at the importance of the panel, releasing comments soon after the Seoul court rejected the issuance of the arrest warrant.

“Through a strict review from the external panel, we hope it could decide whether the prosecution should continue their investigation and indictment efforts,” Lee's legal team said. The comment implies that the outside expert panel will likely look into the validity of both the investigation and indictment procedures.

The system for review was put in place in 2018 to enhance neutrality and fairness of the persecution's probes that are of great public interest. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office plans to establish a deliberation committee to internally discuss the request, Thursday. The committee will create an independent expert panel consisting of 15 members to look into the validity of the probe.

Although the panel's outcome is not legally binding, many experts believe the outcome may influence the prosecution's move to indict Lee to some degree, a vital reason for Samsung's hope for a favorable outcome.

Legal circles believe the court's rejection of the arrest warrant will have a significant impact on the outside expert panel's decision, which many experts believe will be in favor of the vice chairman.

Even if the results could be in favor of Lee, prosecutors are widely expected to request an arrest warrant again, by presenting stronger evidence for his arrest, as it is not obligated to abide by the results of the panel.

The warrant rejection comes as a major humiliation for the prosecution, which claimed it had obtained a “smoking gun” and had shown confidence an arrest warrant would be issued. Over the last 20 months, the prosecution has conducted 50 search and seizures of the company and 110 senior employees were summoned for questioning a total of 430 times.

But there are chances that the Samsung leader Lee would probably receive “political favors” from President Moon in return for his commitment to revving up the local economy and backing the government's drive to create new growth models with local suppliers as it would take a few more years for Lee's legal battle with prosecutors to play out.

“I believe the panel will be in favor of Lee, but the results have no legal binding power so the prosecution will continue their efforts to indict Lee. The legal fight is expected to continue for two to three years as the prosecution believes its hold the smoking gun and doesn't want its 20-month investigation into the case going to waste,” said Choi June-sun, a law professor at Sungkyunkwan University.