Court rejects arrest of Samsung’s Lee in succession probe

A South Korean court rejected prosecutors’ request to arrest Samsung Group’s billionaire heir Jay Y. Lee on allegations of price manipulation and violations of auditing rules, resolving a major uncertainty hanging over the world’s largest technology manufacturer.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled against an arrest warrant for Lee and two other former Samsung executives Monday, saying that despite considerable evidence obtained through their investigation, they didn’t have a valid reason to detain Lee.

”The relevance of the basic facts has been explained and it seems prosecutors have secured a considerable amount of evidence through their probes,” said Won Jung-sook, the judge in the case. “However, they had an insufficient explanation of the need to detain suspects.”