Ministry of Justice Grants Parole to 810 People on Liberation Day... Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong to Be Released at 10 AM on the 13th (Comprehensive)

Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics.../Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] Parole for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is serving a prison sentence for the state corruption scandal, was approved on the 9th. Vice Chairman Lee will be released from Seoul Detention Center at 10 a.m. on the 13th, 207 days after his re-incarceration.

Park Beom-gye, Minister of Justice, approved the parole application for Vice Chairman Lee by the Parole Review Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Parole Review Committee) on the afternoon of the same day. A total of 810 people were included in this Liberation Day parole.

Among those approved for parole were 155 inmates with minor children, 167 inmates convicted of livelihood-related crimes, and 75 patients and elderly people with weakened immunity, considering the COVID-19 situation.

At a Liberation Day parole briefing held at 6:50 p.m. in the briefing room on the 3rd floor of the Ministry of Justice building, Government Complex Gwacheon Building 1, Minister Park said, "The Ministry of Justice Parole Review Committee held today reviewed and decided on the parole of 1,057 inmates. Among them, I, as the Minister of Justice, approved parole for 810 inmates deemed eligible."

He added, "Since my appointment as minister, I have continuously promised to expand parole. This Liberation Day parole was also conducted to help overcome the economic situation and to significantly increase the number of approvals considering the overcrowded conditions of correctional facilities vulnerable to infectious diseases."

Minister Park also specifically explained the background of Vice Chairman Lee being included in the parole candidates.

He stated, "In particular, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was included in this parole in consideration of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the national economic situation and the global economic environment. I understand that the parole decision for Vice Chairman Lee was made after comprehensively considering various factors such as public sentiment and his behavior during incarceration."

He continued, "The Ministry of Justice aims to reduce the current average occupancy rate of correctional facilities from 110% to 105% by continuously expanding parole. We will also operate a parole system that the public can sympathize with through internal improvements such as introducing in-depth interview systems and improving recidivism prediction indicators. In particular, we will strive to provide parole review opportunities to inmates who have served more than 60% of their sentences unless there are special circumstances, to avoid any allegations of preferential treatment."

The Parole Review Committee, which held a closed meeting at the Ministry of Justice Government Complex Gwacheon from 2 p.m. to discuss the eligibility of candidates, after 4 hours and 30 minutes of deliberation, decided that Vice Chairman Lee and others were eligible and applied to Minister Park for parole approval.

The meeting was attended by internal members including Kang Seong-guk, Deputy Minister of Justice and chairperson of the committee, Gu Ja-hyun, Director of the Ministry of Justice Prosecution Bureau, Yoo Byung-chul, Director of the Correction Headquarters, and Yoon Woong-jang, Director of the Crime Prevention Policy Bureau.

External members included five people: Yoon Kang-yeol, Chief Judge of Seoul High Court; Kim Yong-jin, lawyer at the Korea Legal Aid Corporation; Hong Seung-hee, professor at Wonkwang University Law School; Baek Yong-mae, professor of psychology at Daegu Catholic University; and Cho Yoon-oh, professor at Dongguk University Police and Judicial College.

Vice Chairman Lee, who was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison and detained in court during the retrial of the state corruption scandal in January, had completed 60% of his sentence as of the end of last month and was classified as a model prisoner, passing the preliminary parole review at Seoul Detention Center.

Before the parole review, some opposition voices arose mainly from the progressive camp against Vice Chairman Lee's parole, but recent public opinion polls showed a much higher approval rate for his parole, citing reasons such as overcoming the economic crisis and the necessity of vaccine diplomacy.

In particular, Minister Park had advocated for easing and expanding parole conditions even before his appointment, so the legal community predicted a high possibility of Vice Chairman Lee's parole.

Meanwhile, regarding Vice Chairman Lee being granted parole and released while undergoing trial for other cases, Ministry of Justice spokesperson Park Hyun-joo stated, "There is precedent for granting parole to 67 people who were undergoing additional cases in 2020."

Regarding Vice Chairman Lee receiving parole approval without having served 70% of his sentence, she added, "Recently, 244 people were granted parole with less than 70% of their sentence served. This trend is gradually expanding, and we plan to further expand parole to allow inmates with low risk of recidivism to return to society by lowering the execution rate of their sentences."

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