June 11, 2020 08:29
A citizens' panel is to decide whether to accept Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong's application for a public review of prosecutors' investigation into a massive fiddle that allowed him to take over the control of the conglomerate from his ailing father.
The panel of 15 hand-picked laypeople and legal experts is scheduled to meet on Thursday.
Samsung applied for the review last week, which is designed to evaluate the process and validity of cases that either raised questions or drew a huge amount of public attention, in a bid to stall prosecution proceedings.
The review option was introduced as part of reforms to curb prosecution overreach in 2018.
Earlier this week, a Seoul district court refused to issue an arrest warrant for Lee, saying prosecutors had failed to give sufficient cause to detain him on the charges. He has already been convicted of bribing ex-President Park Geun-hye to facilitate the handover.
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