Business leaders plead for pardon of detained Samsung chief

South Korea’s leading business conglomerates have submitted a petition to the presidential office, pleading for a pardon of Samsung Group’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong, officials said Tuesday.

Amid burgeoning concerns over a global semiconductor shortage, the industry’s move marked the first case in about 10 years that business circles have publicly called for the release of a jailed business figure.

The nation’s top five business lobby groups submitted the joint statement to Cheong Wa Dae’s legal affairs office under the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs late Monday afternoon, according to the Korea Employers Federation.

The business leaders requested President Moon Jae-in to “make a decision of reconciliation and tolerance” so that the Samsung Electronics vice chairman, may “dedicate himself to the semiconductor business and to the nation.”

“It is, of course, only right that businesses should be reprimanded for and repent for problematic practices,” said the KEF, one of the signatories. “But it should also be taken into account that the key role of the business world is to contribute to national economy by triggering investments and creating jobs.”

Voicing the petition were the Korea Employers Federation Chairman and CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Korea Federation of SMEs Chairman and J. Estina Chairman Kim Ki-mun, Korea International Trade Association Chairman and LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-yeol, Federation of Middle Market Enterprises of Korea Chairman and Shinyoung CEO Kang Ho-gap.

The key grounds for their argument was that the absence of the semiconductor champion chief may dampen the nation’s industrial competitiveness at a watershed moment.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward the contactless economy and digitalization in all sectors, the semiconductor business holds more weight than ever before,” the statement said, citing US President Joe Biden’s full-fledged support for chip investments.

Due to such rapid market changes and challenges, South Korea’s semiconductor business could lose its leading position at any given time, especially as a pivotal CEO -- such as Lee -- should vacate the control tower, the statement said.

“Now is the golden time in which the government and the industrial circles should join hands in order to enhance global competitiveness and maintain the initiative (in the chip business),” the statement read.

Leading the move was KEF chief Sohn, who earlier this month proposed a special pardon for Lee, after a conglomerate leaders’ meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki.

“I suggested (to the deputy prime minister) that (Samsung Electronics) Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong be pardoned and released,” Sohn told reporters after the meeting. “(The pardon decision) is not up to the deputy prime minister but the government will hopefully make the related discussions.”

Samsung chief Lee was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in January in a retrial over a high-profile bribery case involving the impeached former President Park Geun-hye and her aide. As the sentence includes his already-served detention, he is set to remain in Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, until July next year.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)