Warrant for Lee Jae-yong

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The special probe team led by independent counsel Park Young-soo has again requested an arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Here’s the latest.

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The indepependent counsel team in the presidential impeachment probe has again sought an arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. The request came 26 days after the team's first request was denied. A warrant was requested for a second time because apparently the team believes it has strengthened the bribery charges against Lee. The probe team believes that Lee provided bribes to President Park Geun-hye, her long-time friend Choi Soon-sil and Choi's family to cement his ownership control over the Samsung business empire and embezzled company money in the process. Lee is suspected of laundering company money in the process of purchasing a horse for Choi's family, of concealing criminal proceeds and of hiding assets worth 7.9 billion won abroad. After questioning Lee for a second time,the special counsel team is said to have secured significant amounts of evidence that the Fair Trade Commission gave preferential treatment to Samsung in the process of Samsung SDI selling off shares of Samsung C&T and that the presidential office was involved in that process. The team also requested an arrest warrant for Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin. Park is suspected of being responsible for supporting Choi's family travels back and forth between South Korea and Germany. The team said that though it was not able to hold an in-person interrogation session with the president, it is confidentit can prove the charges against Lee and Park.

[Soundbite] Lee Kyu-chul(Deputy Independent Counsel) : "It would be accurate to say, at the present time, we have no choice but to pursue the in-person interrogation with the president and the bribery case involving Samsung separately."

Court deliberation over the request for arrest warrants for Lee and Park will be held on Thursday.