Ousted South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s lawyer yesterday said his bid to impose martial law was aimed at thwarting a “legislative dictatorship” by the opposition-controlled parliament, as the president became the country’s first sitting head of state to stand trial in a criminal case.
The 64-year-old former prosecutor has been behind bars since he was arrested last month on charges of insurrection, for which he could be sentenced to life in prison or face the death penalty.
Criminal proceedings at Seoul’s Central District Court yesterday morning lasted just over an hour.
Yoon attended the hearing but did not speak, a journalist in the packed courtroom said.
There was heavy security around the building, with Yonhap news agency reporting police mobilised around 3,200 personnel to the site.
Prosecutors have accused the suspended president of being the “ringleader of an insurrection”.
They argued against releasing him from the detention facility where he has been held since mid-January, saying Yoon could try to “influence or persuade those involved in the case”.
Addressing the court, Yoon’s lawyer Kim Hong-il in turn condemned the “illegal probe”, arguing the “investigating body has no jurisdiction”.
“The declaration of martial law was not intended to paralyse the state,” Kim said.
Instead, he said, it was meant to “alert the public to the national crisis caused by the legislative dictatorship of the dominant opposition party, which had crippled the administration”.
“The judiciary must serve as the stabilising force,” he told the court’s three judges, warning that he was “witnessing a reality where illegality compounds illegality”.
Separately, South Korea’s Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to formally remove Yoon from office following his impeachment by parliament in December.
If Yoon is removed from office, the country must hold fresh presidential elections within 60 days.
Much of Yoon’s impeachment trial has centred on the question of whether he violated the constitution by declaring martial law, which is reserved for national emergencies or times of war.
His decree only lasted around six hours as the opposition-led parliament defied troops to vote it down. — AFP
