Special Prosecutor Claims "Lee Jae-yong and President Park Have a Win-Win Relationship"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] The special prosecution team led by Park Young-soo argued that the '3·5 Rule' should no longer be applied in the retrial of bribery related to the state affairs manipulation case involving Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

The special prosecution also stated that Vice Chairman Lee was not in a passive relationship complying with former President Park Geun-hye's coercion but rather in a 'win-win relationship,' and raised strong doubts about the sincerity of the sentencing consideration related to the Samsung Compliance Committee, noting that Lee's side has not shown genuine remorse.

During the trial held at 2:05 p.m. on the 23rd under the jurisdiction of the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Jung Jun-young), the special prosecution made these remarks regarding Lee’s sentencing.

Kang Baek-shin, the chief prosecutor of the special prosecution, mentioned, “The punishability of bribery cases has also evolved since liberation,” and added, “In the past, there was widespread public disapproval of the so-called 3·5 Rule sentencing.” The 3·5 Rule is a term criticizing the past court practice of sentencing political and business figures to three years in prison with a five-year probation.

He continued, “In 2007, the court accepted public criticism that it had been overly lenient on white-collar crimes and established sentencing guidelines to strengthen punishments,” adding, “The sentencing standards have fundamentally changed, as seen in the embezzlement case involving the SK Group owner family, where prison terms of four years and three years and six months were imposed.”

Lee was sentenced to five years in prison in the first trial but had his sentence reduced to two years and six months in prison with a four-year probation in the appellate trial. Last August, the Supreme Court en banc overturned the appellate court’s acquittal of some bribery amounts and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court.

Regarding this, the special prosecution emphasized, “A Samsung C&T accounting employee was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling 1 billion KRW,” and added, “Since the amount embezzled in this case reaches 8 billion KRW, if a lighter sentence than that of the accounting employee is imposed, it would clearly be unequal.”

The special prosecution argued that during the Chun Doo-hwan military government, the regime exercised a superior position over Samsung, but that former President Park Geun-hye and Lee were on equal footing at the time. Chief Prosecutor Kang said, “While other conglomerate owners may differ, it is clear that Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong, the top business leader, and the president were in a mutually beneficial and equal relationship,” adding, “The Supreme Court en banc explicitly ruled on active bribery provision.”

He further stated, “The defendants are making false claims such as passive bribery provision that contradict the facts confirmed by the Supreme Court during the retrial,” and “The sincerity of the sentencing consideration based on the compliance monitoring system, which presupposes genuine remorse, is questionable.”

The special prosecution also argued that the sentencing consideration regarding the Samsung Compliance Committee should be conducted with sufficient time and that conclusions should not be forced within a short period.

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