Court deliberations on a bribery case involving Samsung Group heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong will resume this month. 

According to the legal community on Tuesday, Seoul High Court plans to hold a hearing of the case on October 26 for the first time in nine months. 

The trial has been suspended since January 17 when an independent counsel led by Park Young-soo called on the court to change sitting judge Jung Jun-young, arguing that he displayed prejudice in the case and was biased toward the accused. 

The appeals court dismissed the request in April. The special prosecution then filed the same motion with the Supreme Court, but the top court rejected it last month, too, saying there is no objective ground for recognizing such suspicions. 

The 52-year-old scion was sentenced to five years in prison in August 2017 over three-point-six billion won that Samsung provided to support the daughter of Choi Soon-sil, the long-time confidante of former President Park Geun-hye. An appeals court reduced his sentence to two-and-a-half years suspended for four years, leading to his release in February of 2018. 

The case, however, is sitting again at the Seoul High Court after the Supreme Court last year overturned the lower court’s conviction and ordered the appeals court to review the case, arguing an additional five billion won funneled to Choi from Samsung should also be considered bribery.