This archive report was first published on 25 October 2019.
Lee Jae-yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, appeared in court on Friday for a retrial over a sprawling corruption scandal that has been making headlines for months.
Lee, 51, was jailed for five years in 2017 for bribery, embezzlement, and other offences in connection with the scandal that brought down South Korean president Park Geun-hye.
However, he was released a year later after an appeals court dismissed most of his bribery convictions and gave him a suspended sentence. But the Supreme Court later overturned this decision, ordering a retrial.
Lee's retrial is a significant development in the corruption scandal, which has highlighted shady connections between big business and politics in South Korea.
Prosecutors have accused Lee of paying millions of dollars to Park's secret confidante Choi Soon-sil in exchange for government favours, including ensuring a smooth transition for Lee to succeed his ailing father.
Lee's lawyer, Jang Sang-kyun, has said that the defence respects the Supreme Court's ruling and will defend Lee on that basis.
However, the Supreme Court's decision does not bode well for Lee, as it ruled that 8.6 billion won ($7.3 million) paid by Samsung should be considered as bribes. This means that Lee could face a harsher sentence if convicted.
Lee's retrial is expected to last for months and could deprive his firm of its top decision-maker. The firm's daily business is managed by a board of directors, but strategic moves require his approval.
Lee has effectively been at the helm of the Samsung group since his father and group chairman Lee Kun-hee was left bedridden by a heart attack in 2014.
Both Lee's father and grandfather had brushes with the law, but never served time behind bars. Samsung Electronics is the flagship subsidiary of the group, which is by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols, that dominate business in the world's 11th-largest economy.
Its overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national gross domestic product and it is crucial to South Korea's economic health.
