Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong’s new home is prison cell as he faces bribery charges

Samsung’s de facto leader eats simple meals alone in a small cell equipped with an LG TV as he faces bribery charges.

Lee Jae-yong is led into the office of the independent counsel in Seoul. Pic: AP

Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong’s new home is a cell measuring 6.3 square metres — roughly half the size of a parking space — and equipped with a foldable mattress, table, chair, sink, toilet and an LG television.

The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics wears a khaki jumpsuit and uses a communal shower, according to an official at the Seoul detention centre where he is being held. He eats alone in his cell, his three meals — usually rice, soup and a handful of side dishes — valued at about $US1.25 each and adding up to a daily total of some 2,500 calories. He must wash his own utensils.

Mr Lee is allowed to watch television for seven hours on weekdays and 11 hours on weekends, though just one channel of preapproved programs, the official said. There is one program not preapproved: The nightly news, which of late has often featured detailed reports on his own legal predicament.

The 48-year-old can leave his cell three times a day: 30 minutes for exercise, a 10-minute visitor’s session, and to shower. He is limited to one visitor a day, other than his lawyers, who have unrestricted access.

Mr Lee has been kept away from other inmates even outside his cell, said the Seoul detention centre official, citing safety concerns.

The tycoon has been in jail since February 17, when a court approved an arrest warrant. Yesterday, prosecutors said they would indict Mr Lee on bribery and other charges. He has denied wrongdoing.

Once a judge is appointed to hear the charges, Mr Lee can request bail, though a Samsung spokeswoman said no decision has been made regarding that.

Mr Lee is the first Samsung leader to be imprisoned since the company’s founding in 1938.

“This is unprecedented,” said Park Sang-in, an economics professor at Seoul National University, who has advocated for change at South Korea’s family-run chaebol conglomerates. “The reason Lee Jae-yong was put in jail was because special prosecutors dug further than ever before, because people’s anger about chaebols has never been so high.”

If convicted, Mr Lee could face years behind bars, legal experts said, though the complexities of the case make it hard to determine a likely sentence.

Dow Jones Newswires