South Korea will release billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong on parole this week after he spent 18 months in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that triggered protests and led to the ouster of the country’s previous president.
The announcement Monday by the Justice Ministry, which came with a year left on Lee’s 30-month sentence, extends a history of leniency toward major white-collar crime and preferential treatment for convicted tycoons. It tarnishes the reformist image of President Moon Jae-in, who after winning a presidential by-election in 2017 vowed to curb the excesses of “chaebol,” South Korea’s family-owned conglomerates, and end their cozy ties with the government.
Recent polls have indicated that South Koreans — years removed from the angry rallies of 2016 and 2017 — are largely in favor of Lee’s release, showing Samsung’s deep influence in a country where it provides the smartphones, TVs and credit cards people use, the apartments they live in and the hospitals where they are born or go to die.
Moon’s office didn’t immediately comment on Lee’s release and had previously distanced itself from the issue, saying that paroles are up to the Justice Ministry. The Blue House said it would be difficult for Moon to grant presidential pardons to former conservative presidents Park and Lee Myung-bak, who is also in prison over a separate corruption scandal, ahead of the Aug. 15 Liberation Day.
The People Power Party, the main conservative opposition, welcomed Lee’s release as a “meaningful decision” for the economy.
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