Seoul, March 24 (IANS) Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s criminal trial on insurrection charges will formally begin April 14, a court said on Monday.
The Seoul Central District Court announced the date during the second pretrial hearing, saying the first formal hearing would be held that day on charges that Yoon incited an insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law in December.
Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok and Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, two witnesses requested by the prosecution, will be asked to testify at the first hearing, the court said.
Both Choi and Cho conveyed their concerns to Yoon before he declared martial law on December 3, according to the prosecution’s indictment.
Unlike during the first pretrial hearing, Yoon was not present at the court on Monday. Preparatory hearings do not require the defendant’s attendance, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier in the day, South Korea’s Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s impeachment, reinstating him as acting President in the ongoing turmoil over suspended President Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law.
The court’s eight justices dismissed Han’s impeachment in a 5-1 vote. Two justices voted to reject the impeachment motion entirely.
The ruling came three months after the National Assembly impeached the Prime Minister and then acting President over his alleged role in Yoon’s December 3 declaration of martial law, among other reasons.
Four of the five justices who voted to dismiss Han’s impeachment acknowledged there were violations of the Constitution and the law in his decision to defer the appointment of additional justices to the court but noted it did not justify his removal from office.
As the only justice to uphold the impeachment, however, Justice Chung Kye-sun said the violations were “serious” enough to warrant his dismissal.
She also pointed to “serious” violations of relevant laws in Han’s refusal to promptly seek candidate recommendations for a permanent special counsel to investigate insurrection charges against Yoon.
The six justices who voted to either dismiss or uphold the impeachment said there was no evidence to back the National Assembly’s accusations that Han took proactive action to give legitimacy to Yoon’s martial law bid, such as by convening a Cabinet meeting ahead of its declaration.
–IANS
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