The Seoul Central District Court said on Friday that it has reassigned the bribery case [Reuters report] of Samsung Group‘s [corporate website] would-be chief Jae-yong Lee [Forbes profile] to a new judge, after reports surfaced on Thursday concerning the previous judge’s connection to a woman Lee is accused of bribing. The father-in-law of Young-hoon Lee, the judge who presided over the March 9 pre-trial hearing of Jae-yong and four former and current Samsung executives, was accused the previous day by an opposition lawmaker of proving financial support to Soon-sil Choi, a prime person of interest in the corruption scandal involving the recently impeached [JURIST report] president Geun-hye Park [BBC profile]. Refusing to comment on any specifics, the court stated that Young-hoon’s father-in-law has denied the allegations and said that he has not met or contacted Choi or her family since the 1979 assassination of Guen-hye’s father and former president Chung-hee Park [Britannica profile].

This development comes within three days of the announcement [JURIST report] of the South Korea Supreme Prosecutors’ Office [official website, in Korean] of plans to question ousted president Geun-hye about her involvement in the corruption scandal that led to her impeachment. Last week the South Korea Constitutional Court [official website] upheld [JURIST report] parliament’s decision to impeach Park over a scandal related to government bribes paid by Samsung. Earlier this month five Samsung executives denied charges [JURIST report] of bribery, embezzlement and corruption that were leveled against them in connection with Park. In February Samsung’s head Jae-yong was arrested [JURIST report] on charges of bribery and undue influence in connection with the scandal. Now that Park will not have political immunity it leaves her open to being joined in a number of lawsuits that have been leveled in connection to the scandal, which may include the indictment [JURIST report] of former culture minister Yoon-sun Cho and former presidential chief of staff Ki-choon Kim over the coercion, abuse of power and perjury due to suppression of artists involved with the impeachment process.