South Korea –
Hearing curtailed in President Yoon’s impeachment trial
The examination of the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol began this Tuesday with a first hearing shortened due to the absence of the South Korean president.
Published today at 6:45 a.m.
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The Constitutional Court on Tuesday launched, with a hearing limited to a few minutes, the examination of the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, a procedure which will either permanently remove him for his failed attempt to impose martial law or restore him to power.
More than a month after this coup which plunged South Korea into a serious political crisis, a long but crucial process is beginning. The court has until mid-June to confirm or deny the motion adopted on December 14 by the National Assembly, which suspended Yoon Suk Yeol.
The first hearing started at 2:00 p.m. local time (6:00 a.m. Swiss), lasting only a few minutes, Yoon Suk Yeol not having appeared, a spokesperson for the court told AFP. The former prosecutor’s lawyers had announced his intention to come and explain himself, but not on Tuesday, citing “concerns about security and potential incidents.”
Barricaded at home
Four more sessions are planned at this stage: January 16, 21 and 23, as well as February 4. Barricaded for weeks in his residence and threatened with arrest, Yoon Suk Yeol, 64, risks his mandate for having unsuccessfully tried to impose martial law on December 3, a shock measure that he had justified by his desire to protect the country from “North Korean communist forces” and “eliminate elements hostile to the state”.
Within a Parliament surrounded by soldiers, a sufficient number of deputies quickly thwarted his plans by voting for a text demanding the lifting of this state of exception. Put under pressure by elected officials, thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators and constrained by the Constitution, Yoon Suk Yeol had to comply.
In addition to the impeachment procedure, the conservative leader is the target of several investigations, including one for “rebellion”, a crime punishable by death. The Office for the Investigation of Corruption of High Personalities (CIO), which centralizes the investigations, failed to apprehend him at his home on January 3, pushed back by the Presidential Security Service (PSS) determined to protect him.
Six votes required
If at least six of the court’s justices — out of eight — uphold the impeachment, it would trigger a new presidential election within 60 days in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which is in its second interim president and the early events December. Otherwise, Yoon Suk Yeol, although very unpopular, will be reinstated in office.
“The impeachment case only focuses on martial law, so the facts are not particularly complex,” lawyer Kim Nam-ju told AFP, believing that the process “should not take too long “.
Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal team, for its part, calls on the Court to use the full time allocated to study the case, in particular what “led to the declaration of martial law.”
Reinforced defenses
At the same time, the IOC “continues its preparations” for its second arrest attempt, an official explained to journalists on Tuesday. In order not to repeat the fiasco of January 3, the National Investigation Agency, a division of the police, asked senior police officials in Seoul to be ready to deploy 1,000 officers, according to the Yonhap agency.
Opposite, Yoon Suk Yeol’s guard has reinforced the defenses of his residence, bristling with barbed wire, while buses block the entrance. An army unit is patrolling outside but “will not be mobilized during the execution of the mandate,” Lee Kyung-ho, a spokesperson for the Defense Ministry, told the press.
Police, the IOC and the PSS met on Tuesday to discuss the arrest warrant, Yonhap reported. Yoon Suk Yeol’s chief of staff, Chung Jin-suk, said his office was “ready to consider all options regarding investigation or visits” to the ousted leader “at a third location.”
An arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol, still formally president pending the decision of the Constitutional Court, would represent a first for a sitting South Korean head of state.
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