Samsung Electronics Co. heir Jay Y. Lee was sentenced to 30 months in prison over bribery charges.
“This is shocking news for Samsung, but Samsung should wrap up this legal wrangling and move forward,” said Chae Yi-bai, a former South Korean lawmaker who has worked at a non-profit shareholder activist organization. “Since Lee already spent one year in prison, there will be one and a half years of a leadership vacuum.”
Lee, 52, was transported to Seoul Detention Center on the outskirts of the capital on Monday. Once he arrives, he will be checked for a coronavirus infection with a rapid antigen test.
The Seoul Detention Center, which has about 700 employees and 2,400 inmates, has only seen one employee and four inmates infected since the coronavirus pandemic hit South Korea last year, the official said.
However, the country’s Ministry of Justice has been criticized for mismanaging COVID-19 infections among inmates, as 1,257 coronavirus cases have been connected to prisons nationwide as of Monday, according to the ministry.
The ministry has recently released 900 inmates on parole to free up space in the prisons.
Lee was held in Seoul Detention Center when he was convicted of bribing an associate of former President Park Geun-hye and sentenced to five years in 2017. He was freed in 2018 after the sentence was reduced and suspended on appeal.
Park, who became South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office on graft charges, is also being held in the same prison. Last week, the top court upheld a 20-year prison sentence for the former president.
South Korea had reported 389 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, bringing the country’s tally to 72,729 infections, with 1,264 deaths.
