Samsung vice chairman Lee Jae-yong arrested over new corruption evidence

Lee Jae-yong arrested after prosecutors say they have fresh evidence in political corruption case

Samsung's vice chairman Lee Jae-yong has been arrested by South Korean police after prosecutors claimed to have secured new evidence against him in a long-running bribery case.

The Seoul Central District Court had previously rejected the prosecutors' request to arrest Lee citing insufficient evidence, however after the presentation of new evidence it has changed its opinion.

"We acknowledge the cause and necessity of the arrest," said a judge, citing additional allegations and evidence, as reported by MSNBC.

Lee was taken into custody in the Seoul Detention Centre and remained there while the court arrived at its decision in a closed-door hearing which ended on Thursday evening. Prosecutors now have 20 days to question Lee before they have to formally indict him.

Samsung has been embroiled in a political scandal which in December led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye, after months of political turmoil in South Korea. Park awaits a final decision by the Constitutional Court on whether the impeachment will stand.

During investigations into the political scandal the company's offices were raided by the police. Prosecutors allege that the company funnelled money totalling 43bn won (£30.2m) to Park's government via her associate Choi Soon-sil, to secure backing for a corporate merger of two Samsung units. Lee has admitted funding the equestrian career of Ms Choi's daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, in Denmark.

Last year Lee Jae-yong, who is 48, took over the running of the company from his father Lee Kun-hee, who suffered a heart attack in 2014 but remains leader of the Samsung Group.

Aside from the lingering corruption allegations, there have long been concerns among investors about Samsung's complex structure, with repeated calls that it should be broken up. Samsung's disastrous 2016, with the damage inflicted by the exploding batteries in the flagship Note 7 phablet amounting to billions of dollars, has given the upper hand to investors who say that Samsung should be broken into two units: an operational enterprise and holding company.

The South Korean authorities are also investigating an alleged anti-competitive deal between Google and Samsung signed in 2011 that effectively locked out other operating systems apart from Android.