South Korea’s ousted leader Yoon denies charges during criminal trial
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South Korea's ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol (centre) arriving at the Seoul Central District Court on April 14.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL - Impeached South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol argued that his brief martial law declaration late last year was “not a coup d’etat” as he appeared in court on April 14 for the start of a criminal trial over charges that he led an insurrection.
The martial law attempt, which lasted about six hours before Yoon backed down in the face of parliamentary opposition and public protests, plunged the country into months of turmoil and led to the Constitutional Court removing him from the presidency earlier in April for violating constitutional powers.
After departing his house in a motorcade on April 14, Yoon, who has denied all charges against him, entered a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court, wearing a dark navy suit and red tie.
At the start of proceedings, prosecutors presented their case by arguing Yoon lacked the legal grounds to declare martial law and accused him of trying to paralyse state institutions such as parliament.
“The defendant ... made it impossible for constitutional institutions to exercise their authority based on an unlawful declaration,” the prosecution said.
Yoon, who was the country’s chief prosecutor before becoming president, spent about 40 minutes in the morning refuting the prosecution’s allegations.
“Martial law is not a coup d’etat,” Yoon said, adding that he had no intention of paralysing the country, but that martial law was needed to alert the people to how the majority opposition party was stonewalling government by impeaching more than 20 officials, including the Board of Audit and Inspection chief, which he saw as a dangerous threshold.
“This was a peaceful ‘message martial law’ to the nation… I knew this martial law would end within half-a-day, a day,” Yoon said.
Yoon said although he had communicated this intention to ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, military officials carrying out the order seemed to have overstepped it because they are used to training for martial law under different guidelines.
Insurrection charge
Two senior military officers took the witness stand in the afternoon.
Both of them, including Mr Cho Sung-hyun from the army’s capital defence command, testified that they were ordered by their superior officer to send troops to “drag” lawmakers out of parliament during Yoon’s martial law order.
Yoon has denied this allegation, saying he had not given such an order.
The martial law declaration, which cited the need to root out “anti-state” elements, was lifted six hours later after parliamentary staffers used barricades and fire extinguishers to ward off special operations soldiers trying to enter Parliament, where lawmakers voted to reject martial law.
The charge of insurrection faced by the impeached leader is punishable by life imprisonment or even death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
His martial law declaration on Dec 3 shocked South Koreans, and created chaos in all areas of society, the economy and foreign policy, the Constitutional Court said.
The upheaval has further exposed deep social rifts between conservatives and liberals, and stepped up pressure on institutions and the military, which had found itself in a quandary over whether to enforce martial law.
The former president returned to his private home
He remains defiant and has pledged to “stand by” his supporters.
The country will now hold a snap election on June 3
Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader who is leading presidential polls, visited on April 14 a start-up that develops artificial intelligence chips, pledging to ease regulations with aggressive investments in the AI industry. REUTERS
