Rep. Park Yong-jin of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea claimed on May 7 that the Supreme Court's ruling on the bribery case of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong should be made after the prosecution's investigation into the Samsung BioLogics accounting fraud case.
"Samsung Biologics' accounting fraud case is a crucial smoking case, a comprehensive set of illegal gifts that mobilized all kinds of criminal activities to carry out the management succession process," Park said in a press conference at the National Assembly.
Rep. Park insisted, "Such matters as the rumor on a forced merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries and the bribery scandal linking Lee Jae-yong, former President Park Geun-hye and Choi Sun-sil were designed for the smooth succession of the management to Lee Jae-yong. They come to light."
"Lee Jae-yong's second trial court accepted his lawyer's claim that the management succession process did not exist and sentenced Lee Jae-yong to a suspended jail term, but now prosecutors have found numerous evidence showing that the ruling was wrong," he said, stressing that the Supreme Court should not rush to rule on Lee in a full-fledged manner if the justice of the nation's judiciary is to be straightened.
Rep. Park said, "The Supreme Court is recently hurrying to judge the Lee Jae-yong and Park Geun-hye graft case that had continued for over a year and three months after the court's second ruling. However, many people are raising suspicions why it is hurrying at this point."
On the April 30 meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Lee Jae-yong, Rep. Park said, "The prosecution and the Supreme Court should not interpret the president's efforts to enhance economic vitalization irrelevantly."
"The president has never made any remarks or expressed opinions regarding Lee Jae-yong and Samsung's wrongdoings," Park said. "We interpret it as the president's various efforts to revitalize the economy and boost corporate vitality."