By Michael Breen
When Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of Samsung, appeared in court earlier this month to answer charges in connection with the corruption case that unseated President Park Geun-hye, he did so surrounded by guards and with his arms and wrists tied tightly by thick rope.
Given that Lee is innocent of any crimes until the court rules that he is guilty and given that the charges are white collar crimes that have involved no violence, what is the point of strapping him down in this way? How are we to interpret such images?
This is a question that photographers address when they send their photographs to news organizations by just jotting down the minimum facts. By the time the photo appears in newspapers around the world, editors have added their own ideas of the significance.
For example, The New York Times, the major daily in America, did its fact-plus-interpretation caption thus: "Lee Jae-yong of Samsung arriving at the Seoul Central District Court for the start of his trial on corruption charges. The case is putting a focus on South Korea's business culture."
That second sentence will vary according to the audience. For example, in tech media, it might read, "Despite this setback, Samsung's share price continues to rise." (Which was true). Or, the Pyongyang Times might just do one sentence that jostles the facts to fit a preferred significance, "Ri Jae-yong, a capitalist, is held by guards after he attempted to flee to our country."
For me, as the Blue House scandal unfolded over the past few months, the impressions from the photos that illustrated it, including this one, have gathered into a single hard point. That is, that justice in Korea is not just.
In high profile dramas such as the one involving Lee, this injustice is expressed in four acts. Act one, scene one is when the suspect appears at the prosecution office for questioning. This is the part commonly known as the "media circus." The purpose here is to undermine the idea that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. He is made to look guilty.
Act two is when the suspect is jailed before the trial. There are two reasons for a judge to agree to an arrest warrant at this point. One is to prevent flight. The other is to prevent destruction of evidence. Clearly in the cases involving Lee, President Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil these reasons are not valid.
There must be another factor, therefore, behind their incarceration. There is: The need to manufacture evidence.
On the face of it, by asking Samsung to donate to foundations promoting Korean sports and culture, Park and Choi did nothing illegal or even unusual. Similarly, in obliging, Lee was simply acting in Samsung's perceived interest, which is his job. The factor which may have made the transaction corrupt was invisible motivation. Was the Samsung donation made for explicit favors?
To prove that, you need one of two things. The first is objective evidence in the form or phone calls, memos or emails. As that appears to be absent, the prosecutor can only win his case if he obtains a confession by one of the three or by an aide who agrees to finger them.
The purpose of jailing is to isolate the victims and weaken them psychologically in the hope that, within the legally permitted time frame, one of them cracks.
Act three is the first court appearance. This is what we have just witnessed with Lee. The prosecutor's intention here, especially if he has failed to get a confession, is to manipulate the outcome, to make the suspect look guilty in front of the judges and the media. This is achieved with the over-the-top image of guards and ropes. It made Lee look like a serial killer who needed to be restrained lest he lunge at court officials.
Act three scene three is the macho sentence and this is followed, after a relatively short period, by Act four, which is the presidential pardon. As I say, this will come quickly because actually Lee is not guilty of anything except of being the head of a chaebol who needs to operate in the Korean political and business environment.
The overall message is that Korea does not take its own system of justice very seriously. The crowds clamoring for President Park to be impeached, arrested and imprisoned have no faith in the system. They would not want to be judged by it themselves. And those running it cynically manipulate it.
As citizens of a modern democracy, Koreans deserve better.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
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Given that Lee is innocent of any crimes until the court rules that he is guilty and given that the charges are white collar crimes that have involved no violence, what is the point of strapping him down in this way? How are we to interpret such images?
This is a question that photographers address when they send their photographs to news organizations by just jotting down the minimum facts. By the time the photo appears in newspapers around the world, editors have added their own ideas of the significance.
For example, The New York Times, the major daily in America, did its fact-plus-interpretation caption thus: "Lee Jae-yong of Samsung arriving at the Seoul Central District Court for the start of his trial on corruption charges. The case is putting a focus on South Korea's business culture."
That second sentence will vary according to the audience. For example, in tech media, it might read, "Despite this setback, Samsung's share price continues to rise." (Which was true). Or, the Pyongyang Times might just do one sentence that jostles the facts to fit a preferred significance, "Ri Jae-yong, a capitalist, is held by guards after he attempted to flee to our country."
For me, as the Blue House scandal unfolded over the past few months, the impressions from the photos that illustrated it, including this one, have gathered into a single hard point. That is, that justice in Korea is not just.
In high profile dramas such as the one involving Lee, this injustice is expressed in four acts. Act one, scene one is when the suspect appears at the prosecution office for questioning. This is the part commonly known as the "media circus." The purpose here is to undermine the idea that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. He is made to look guilty.
Act two is when the suspect is jailed before the trial. There are two reasons for a judge to agree to an arrest warrant at this point. One is to prevent flight. The other is to prevent destruction of evidence. Clearly in the cases involving Lee, President Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil these reasons are not valid.
There must be another factor, therefore, behind their incarceration. There is: The need to manufacture evidence.
On the face of it, by asking Samsung to donate to foundations promoting Korean sports and culture, Park and Choi did nothing illegal or even unusual. Similarly, in obliging, Lee was simply acting in Samsung's perceived interest, which is his job. The factor which may have made the transaction corrupt was invisible motivation. Was the Samsung donation made for explicit favors?
To prove that, you need one of two things. The first is objective evidence in the form or phone calls, memos or emails. As that appears to be absent, the prosecutor can only win his case if he obtains a confession by one of the three or by an aide who agrees to finger them.
The purpose of jailing is to isolate the victims and weaken them psychologically in the hope that, within the legally permitted time frame, one of them cracks.
Act three is the first court appearance. This is what we have just witnessed with Lee. The prosecutor's intention here, especially if he has failed to get a confession, is to manipulate the outcome, to make the suspect look guilty in front of the judges and the media. This is achieved with the over-the-top image of guards and ropes. It made Lee look like a serial killer who needed to be restrained lest he lunge at court officials.
Act three scene three is the macho sentence and this is followed, after a relatively short period, by Act four, which is the presidential pardon. As I say, this will come quickly because actually Lee is not guilty of anything except of being the head of a chaebol who needs to operate in the Korean political and business environment.
The overall message is that Korea does not take its own system of justice very seriously. The crowds clamoring for President Park to be impeached, arrested and imprisoned have no faith in the system. They would not want to be judged by it themselves. And those running it cynically manipulate it.
As citizens of a modern democracy, Koreans deserve better.
Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."
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