Lee Jae-yong (Xinhua file photo)
SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean appeals court released Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong Monday as Lee got a suspended jail sentence in the second trial.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Lee, an heir apparent of Samsung Group, the country's biggest family-controlled conglomerate, to two and a half years in prison with a stay of execution for four years.
It was a commutation from the five-year imprisonment levied in the first trial in August last year.
Lee was taken into custody on Feb. 17, 2017 for bribery charges. Prosecutors sought 12 years in jail for Lee.
The Samsung heir was accused of giving tens of millions of U.S. dollars in bribe to impeached President Park Geun-hye and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, who had been detained as criminal accomplice for multiple charges.
The appeals court acknowledged only a part of the money, which the first-trial court saw as graft, as bribes given to Park and Choi, reducing the jail sentence to a suspended jail term.
The first-trial court ruled that the Samsung heir offered the bribes in return for assistance to inherit the management control of Samsung from his ailing father, Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized for almost four years.
However, the high court said it was not able to find any existence of or favor for the management inheritance.
Two other senior Samsung executives were released as the appeals court handed down suspended jail terms.
The high court rulings were expected to bring public criticism as it can affect the rulings for the impeached president and her decades-long friend.
Park is waiting for the first-trial ruling, while prosecutors sought 25 years in jail for Choi.
