Court Dismisses Request to Recuse Judge in Lee Jae-yong Trial Filed by Special Prosecutor Team... Special Prosecutor Team "Considering Appeal After Reviewing Decision"

On November 22 last year, Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, is attending the retrial at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul. / Yonhap [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Seokjin Choi and Seongpil Jo] The recusation request filed by the special prosecution team led by Park Young-soo, asking to change the presiding judge of the retrial for bribery charges against Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong (52), has been dismissed.

The Criminal Division 3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Bae Jun-hyun, Pyo Hyun-deok, Kim Kyu-dong) dismissed the recusation request on the 17th, which the special prosecution team had filed against the Criminal Division 1 handling Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's retrial.

The court stated the reason for dismissal, saying, "There is no objective circumstance to believe that Presiding Judge Jung Jun-young has any prejudgment favorable to the defendants in sentencing or that he would unfairly exercise his authority in directing the trial arbitrarily, thus raising concerns of an unfair trial."

Earlier, Special Prosecutor Yang Jae-sik pointed out the court's bias and filed the recusation request.

Article 17, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act stipulates that prosecutors or defendants may request the recusation of a judge if the judge falls under disqualification grounds or if there is concern about an unfair trial.

Regarding the court's decision, Special Prosecutor Yang said, "Once we receive the decision document from the court, we will analyze its contents and then decide whether to file a further appeal to the Supreme Court."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.