Samsung Appeal

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The appeal trial has begun for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong who received a five year sentence on charges of handing bribes to former President Park Geun-hye and her friend Choi Soon-sil. In the first session held Thursday, the opposing camps bickered over whether a notebook belonging to former presidential aid Ahn Jong-beom could be used as evidence.

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Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong who has been detained at Seoul Detention Center gets off a transport vehicle and heads into court. This comes 48 days after the Samsung heir was sentenced to a five year jail term in the first trial on August 25th. Former head of Samsung Group's future strategy Choi Gee-sung and a former ranking official of that division Jang Chung-gi who were also imprisoned after the first trial also arrived at court on Thursday. In the first session of the appeals trial held at Seoul High Court, opposing camps wrangled over whether a notebook belonging to former presidential aid Ahn Jong-beom could be used as evidence. Samsung's legal counsel argued the notes cannot stand as evidence without confirmation that the writing truthfully reflects the words of former President Park Geun-hye. However, the special prosecution team refuted saying that the court in the first trial acknowledged the related facts based upon Ahn's notes and testimony. The appeals trial is also expected to focus on the alleged correlation between favors provided by Samsung and the facilitation of Lee Jae-yong's corporate succession. The special counsel team believes Samsung asked favors to former President Park in return for assistance in Lee's succession. Samsung is expected to reject the allegation saying there was no particular succession plan in motion at the time and therefore no such favor was made.