Samsung chief faces long day as S Korean court weighs arrest warrant

SEOUL: The head of South Korea´s giant Samsung Group faces a long day in court on Wednesday as a judge decides whether he should be arrested for bribery in a corruption scandal that has engulfed President Park Geun-hye´s administration.

Investigators questioned Jay Y. Lee for 22 hours last week as a suspect in the scandal which led to parliament impeaching Park in December and throwing the country into crisis.

Park, 64, remains in office but has been stripped of her powers while the Constitutional Court decides whether to make her the country´s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.

She is likely to undergo "face-to-face" questioning by early next month, the special prosecutor´s spokesman said.

The prosecutor´s office has accused Lee, 48, of paying bribes totalling 43 billion won ($36.55 million) to organisations linked to Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the president who is at the centre of the scandal, to secure the 2015 merger of two affiliates and cement his control of the family business.

Lee, who has denied wrongdoing, is also accused of embezzlement and perjury. Lee´s lawyer could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Seoul Central District Court will hold the hearing to decide on his arrest warrant.

A court official told Reuters that Lee and his lawyer would attend the hearing.

A spokesman for the special prosecutor´s team said Lee would then be held in detention until the court had made its ruling.

"A judge´s examination of a suspect normally finishes in 30 minutes at the earliest, but can take longer than two hours for complicated matters, which is likely to be the case," the court official said.

"Then, after the examination, the judge goes back to his office to review records and evidence and deliberate arguments of the prosecution´s side and the suspect´s side," said the official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.