If convicted and
given a jail sentence, home for Jay Y. Lee, the billionaire de facto head of
South Korean conglomerate Samsung, could be a crowded prison set in wooded
hills just to the north of Seoul, where disgraced politicians and business
leaders have previously served time.
Lee, who has been tried on charges ranging from
bribery to perjury in a scandal that triggered the dismissal from office of the
country's ex-president Park Geun-hye, will hear the verdict of a lower court on
Friday. Prosecutors are seeking a 12-year jail term.
The 49-year-old Samsung scion denies wrongdoing,
and would almost certainly appeal any conviction, with his case likely to be
fast-tracked to the Supreme Court for a final ruling, probably next year.
In the event, then, of an upheld conviction, Lee
would likely follow a route to Uijeongbu Prison taken previously by a former
prime minister and the heads of the SK and Daesang conglomerates, among others.
If sent to Uijeongbu, Lee would likely be held in a
single cell, equipped with a TV, shelving, coat rack and electric fan.
Prisoners are expected to work - tending the flower
garden is seen as a popular choice, said a prison official, who didn't want to
be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media - and he would be
allowed to exercise outdoors for an hour a day.
They can also take up study courses in English or
Japanese, and attend religious services. Chey Tae-won, the convicted SK
chairman, dedicated a book he published while at the prison "to the
Lord".
Lawyers said white-collar crime inmates often
reduce their manual work time by having "special meetings" with
visitors, which can be granted at the discretion of the prison warden.
Directing operations at Samsung Electronics, the
world's leading smartphone and memory chip maker, from prison, though, would be
a challenge as most visits are restricted. Previous conglomerate, or chaebol,
heads relied on leadership committees to mind the shop while they served their
sentences.
For now, pending this week's lower court verdict,
Lee remains in the Seoul Detention Centre where, since February, home has been
a 6.56 square meter (71 square foot) cell, with a partitioned toilet. Meals are
simple, normally rice and side-dishes, and cheap, costing 1,443 won ($1.26).
The center, in a Seoul suburb near apartments built
by Samsung C&T (028260.KS) and stores advertising Samsung Electronics'
(005930.KS) smartphones, is the country's third-most crowded correctional
facility.
A justice ministry official told Reuters that Lee
could ask to be transferred - possibly to the newer 12-floor Seoul Eastern
Detention Centre, which local media say has basketball courts, elevators and
wall-mounted flat-screen TVs. A former top aide to ex-president Park, on trial
for corruption, recently moved to the new Seoul facility.
While preparing the lengthy appeal process,
previous high-profile inmates have hired so-called 'butler lawyers', who stay
with detained clients for hours a day to get them out of their cells and into
the more comfortable visitors' rooms.
Justice ministry data show SK chairman Chey had
more than 1,600 meetings with his lawyers during his 17-month detention in
2013-14 - more than three meetings every day.
News
Source: - Reuters | August 24, 2017.
Photo Source: - Quartz Media | February 22, 2017.
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