Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong receives interviews before questioning in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 12, 2017. The heir apparent of Samsung Group, South Korea's largest conglomerate, appeared in the office of an independent counsel team investigating a scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-hye for his alleged involvement in bribery charges. (Xinhua/Lee Sang-ho)
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korean National Assembly on Thursday filed a complaint against Samsung's heir apparent for perjury during the December parliamentary hearing on a scandal involving impeached President Park Geun-hye.
The assembly's special committee, which is probing the scandal separately from an independent counsel, reached an agreement to accuse Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong of giving his false testimony at the first parliamentary hearing on Dec. 6 last year.
Vice Chairman Lee was summoned earlier in the day by the independent counsel to be questioned for an alleged bribery charge.
Lee is suspected of having been involved in Samsung's financial assistance to President Park's longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil and Choi's daughter, in return for getting support from the national pension fund for the merger in July 2015 of two Samsung affiliates.
The merger was extremely crucial to the heir apparent of South Korea's largest family-run conglomerate to inherit the overall management control from his ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized for over two and a half years.
The parliamentary committee asked the special prosecutor to interrogate the vice chairman, who the committee claimed has given his false testimony on the bribery charge.
