South Korean president’s lawyer says martial law bid sought to stop ‘dictatorship’

Seoul – Ousted South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s lawyer on Feb 20 said Yoon’s 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 in January

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 on Feb 20 lasted just over an hour.

Mr Yoon attended the hearing but did not speak, an AFP 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.

A supporter of the ousted president dressed in a Captain America superhero outfit was spotted outside the security perimeter.

Prosecutors have accused the suspended president of being the “ringleader of an insurrection”.

They argued on Feb 20 against releasing him from the detention facility where he has been held since mid-January, saying Mr Yoon could try and “influence or persuade those involved in the case”.

Addressing the court, his 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,” Mr 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”.

Top brass to testify

Separately, South Korea’s Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to formally remove Mr Yoon from office following his impeachment by Parliament in December.

His 10th hearing in that case is scheduled for 3pm, just hours after he takes the stand in his criminal trial.

Called to testify at the Constitutional Court are Mr Han Duck-soo, who was also

impeached as acting president

following Mr Yoon’s removal from office in December, and former senior intelligence official Hong Jang-won.

Mr Yoon walked out after just five minutes, according to a pool report.

Mr Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kap-keun told reporters that the ousted president felt it was “inappropriate” for the two to sit in the same court room, “or for the president to watch the prime minister testify”.

“It is not good for the nation’s prestige,” his lawyer quoted Mr Yoon as saying.

The head of South Korea’s National Police Agency Cho Ji-ho – also on trial on insurrection charges related to the martial law decree – has also been called as a witness.

But it is still not clear whether that impeachment hearing will be his last before the Constitutional Court’s eight judges go behind closed doors to deliberate his fate.

That process could take up to a fortnight or even longer.

Previously impeached presidents Park Geun-hye and Roh Moo-hyun had to wait 11 and 14 days, respectively, to learn their fates.

If Mr Yoon is removed from office, the country must hold fresh presidential elections within 60 days.

Much of his 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 lasted only around six hours as the opposition-led Parliament defied troops to vote it down. But it has plunged the democracy into months of political turmoil with protests, two impeachments and a surge of online disinformation.

Mr Yoon’s lawyers told reporters last week that his martial law declaration was “an act of governance and cannot be subject to judicial review”. AFP