Former Samsung head gives up IOC membership rights

SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Yonhap) -- The former chairman of Samsung Group, South Korea's
largest conglomerate, has given up his rights as a member of the International
Olympics Committee (IOC), the governing body's Web site said Thursday.
An article on the IOC Web site showed that the body's executive board "approved
the recommendation made... by the IOC Ethics Commission, to take note of Mr
Kun-hee Lee's decision to voluntarily give up the rights."
The article, dated Aug. 3, 2008, said that Lee's "prerogatives and functions
deriving from his IOC membership" will remain ineffective "until the legal
proceedings against him are concluded."
"Lee has personally expressed his intentions to give up his rights during an IOC
executive meeting in June 2008," a Samsung official said, requesting to be
unnamed.
The 67-year-old Lee, who had been at the helm of Samsung for two decades, stepped
down in April last year in the wake of a parliament-ordered corruption probe that
led to his indictment for tax evasion and other charges. In October, an appellate
court upheld a lower court's decision to give Lee a three-year suspended jail
term.
"We expect Lee to fully retain his IOC membership rights if he is freed of
charges by the supreme court or later exonerated through an amnesty," the
official said.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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