Seoul - A South Korean judge questioned
Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee behind closed doors on Wednesday
to decide whether he should be arrested over his alleged role in
a corruption scandal that led parliament to impeach President
Park Geun-hye.
Lee, 48, in dark overcoat and purple necktie, did not answer
questions from reporters as he left the Seoul Central District
Court after the nearly four-hour hearing and headed by car to a
detention centre to await his fate.
One of the five attorneys representing Lee struck a positive
tone, saying the legal team had argued its case sufficiently.
"We are confident the court will make a wise decision,"
attorney Song Wu-cheol told reporters.
The special prosecutor's office on Monday said it would seek
a warrant to arrest the third-generation leader of the country's
largest conglomerate on suspicion of bribery, embezzlement and
perjury.
Lee, who has been the de facto leader of South Korea's
biggest conglomerate since his father Lee Kun-hee was
incapacitated by a 2014 heart attack, was questioned last week
for 22 straight hours at the prosecutor's office in Seoul.
He has denied wrongdoing.
Park, 64, was impeached last month by parliament over the
influence-peddling scandal, a decision that if upheld by the
Constitutional Court will see her become the country's first
democratically-elected leader forced from office early.
Park, who remains in office but stripped of her powers while
the court decides her fate, has denied wrongdoing.
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The judge may not announce his decision on the arrest
warrant for Lee until after midnight, a court official told
Reuters on Tuesday. The court ordered Lee to be
held at the Seoul Detention Centre, a half-hour drive away,
while it reviews the warrant request.
The special prosecutor has accused Lee of paying bribes
totalling 43 billion won ($36.70 million) to organisations
linked to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the
centre of the scandal, to secure the 2015 merger of two
affiliates and cement his control of the family business.
Earlier this week, the special prosecutor indicted the
chairman of the National Pension Service (NPS), the world's
third-largest pension fund, on charges of abuse of power and
giving false testimony.
NPS chairman Moon Hyung-pyo was arrested in December after
acknowledging ordering it to support the controversial $8
billion merger in 2015 of the two Samsung Group
affiliates while heading the health ministry, which oversees the
NPS.
The special prosecutor's office has said it did not seek
arrest warrants for three other Samsung Group executives that
also underwent questioning, in order to minimise the impact on
Samsung business.
The group's flagship, Samsung Electronics, is
the world's biggest maker of smartphones, flatscreen TVs and
memory chips.