Samsung heir gets prison term for bribery scandal

Samsung heir Lee Jae Yong has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison by a high court in South Korea.

The bribery case is a retrial of an earlier one involving the country's former President Park Geun-hye, who was also jailed for bribery and corruption.

Lee has been the de facto head of Samsung Electronics since 2014.

The ruling is likely to have ramifications for the future of his role at the tech giant.

News of the sentence sent Samsung electronics shares more than 4% lower before they began to claw back some ground.

Lee's jail term will at least temporarily side-line him from decision making at the conglomerate.

Experts say the sentence could create a leadership vacuum and hamper Samsung's decision-making on future large-scale investments.

"It's really a huge blow and a big crisis for Samsung," Kim Dae-jong, a business professor at Sejong University, told news agency AFP.

Lee assumed leadership of the company when his father Lee Kun-hee was hospitalised following a heart attack in 2014.

The elder Lee died last year, leading to speculation that there would be a shake-up at Samsung as his heirs could be forced into asset sales or dividend payments to cover a massive inheritance tax bill.