Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Samsung Group, has vowed his continuous support for the group's compliance committee in his first message from prison.

Lee was incarcerated on Monday after he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye. The Samsung Electronics vice chairman had been allowed to walk free less than three years ago.

According to the legal counsel to Samsung Electronics on Thursday, Lee asked the committee chair and members to continue fulfilling their duties, ahead of its inaugural meeting later in the day.

Samsung launched the independent panel in February 2020 to monitor the group's compliance with laws and ethics. This came after the Seoul High Court ordered Lee in October 2019 to seek measures to prevent ethical lapses at the conglomerate.

In a public apology in May 2020, Lee vowed to firmly root corporate compliance as corporate culture at Samsung, adding that the panel would continue to operate even after his trial ends.

Despite hopes that the panel's launch might help Lee get a suspended sentence, the appeals court sent him back to jail, refusing to take the committee into consideration in sentencing.