A Seoul court on Thursday rejected an arrest warrant sought for Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Group's de facto leader, dealing a blow to investigators who have been accelerating the probe into an influence-peddling scandal centered on President Park Geun-hye and her friend.

On Monday, an independent counsel team looking into the scandal announced that it sought the warrant against Lee, the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co., on charges of bribery, embezzlement and perjury.

As the Seoul Central District court declined the request, Lee has avoided becoming the first senior executive in the country to be arrested following the outbreak of the scandal in late October.

"It is hard to acknowledged the reason, necessity and appropriateness for the arrest at the current stage," the court said, pointing out that key issues, such as whether the money was for any kind of reciprocal favors, are still debated.

After the request for the warrant was rejected, Lee left a detention center in Uiwang, south of Seoul, where he stayed for some 14 hours pending the court's decision. 

Lee remained silent when a throng of reporters hurled a volley of questions, including whether he feels a moral responsibility for the bribery allegations.

Lee plans to go to his office in southern Seoul later in the day.

Investigators suspect that Lee gave or promised some 43 billion won ($36.3 million) worth of bribes to Park's jailed friend Choi Soon-sil in return for the state-run pension fund's backing of a merger of two Samsung affiliates.

The probe team's spokesman Lee Kyu-chul said this week the kickbacks given to Choi were tantamount to bribes to Park, adding there is enough evidence to prove that the two shared profits.

The merger was seen as critical for the smooth management succession of the group from ailing Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee to his only son Jae-yong. 

The younger Lee became a board member of Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone maker, in October, and his father has been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack in 2014.

The business group has admitted to making contributions to two foundations allegedly controlled by Choi and her Germany-based firm, but denied such contributions were related to the 2015 merger.

The probe team earlier said it will carry out its investigation into other conglomerates who gave money to the foundations as planned, regardless of the court's decision on the warrant request.

It also plans to question President Park, who is awaiting the Constitutional Court's decision on her impeachment, in the near future. The spokesman Lee said a face-to-face interrogation will take place by the beginning of February at the latest.

Park and Choi have both denied all charges of colluding to extort money from big businesses and rejected allegations of influence peddling. The president, who was stripped of her executive powers by parliament on Dec. 9, said she will prove her innocence in court. (Yonhap)