Prosecutors demand prison sentence for former Samsung boss

Seoul: Prosecutors asked a South Korean court to sentence former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee to seven years in prison for tax evasion and other charges, saying the country's powerful business conglomerates should not be immune from the law.

Prosecutors also demanded that Lee be fined $350 million for the charges that led him to resign as head of Samsung Group, the most prominent of the country's family-run conglomerates.

Lee's defense attorneys denied the charges and asked the court for leniency, citing the contributions of Samsung and Lee to South Korea's economic development.

In April, special prosecutors indicted Lee for evading taxes, breach of trust and violating the securities exchange law after a three-month probe into his family-run company.

Prosecutors have said they found $4.5 billion of his personal assets under borrowed names and determined he evaded taxes worth $112 million. Lee was also charged with failing to report to the securities authority changes in the ownership of his stock assets.