The Constitutional Court of Korea said Monday that it is still reviewing whether to move the final hearing for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial, which has been scheduled for Thursday ― the same day his separate criminal trial is to begin.
The court’s press officer Cheon Jae-hyun told reporters Monday that “nothing has been decided” as of Monday morning.
On Friday, Yoon’s legal representatives submitted a request asking the court to change the date for the 10th hearing, citing scheduling conflicts as the reason.
On Thursday, Yoon’s first hearing on insurrection charges at the Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m.
On the same day at 2 p.m., the Constitutional Court will hold the 10th and final hearing, summoning three witnesses for examination: impeached Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, former First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Hong Jang-won and suspended Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency Cho Ji-ho.
Hong already spoke in court on Feb. 4, but Yoon’s legal team raised concerns about the credibility of his testimony and requested that he be summoned again.
Cho, who had been approved as a witness but failed to appear on Jan. 16 and Feb. 13 due to health reasons, is expected to appear Thursday.
The court told reporters that none of the three witnesses had turned in a statement of nonattendance so far.
“I didn’t receive any notice (from the justices) about when the decision (on whether to move Yoon’s trial) will be made. It may be announced following tomorrow’s hearing,” Cheon told reporters.
Regarding the court’s decision to first deny and then approve Yoon’s request to summon Han in the ongoing impeachment trial, she said that justices “reconsidered and readopted” the decision after “comprehensively reviewing” Yoon’s arguments and the progress of the proceedings.
The National Assembly, which acts as the prosecutor in Yoon's trial, turned in a statement of opinion on Saturday in which it argued that Yoon’s criminal hearing and the impeachment hearing take place at different times and it poses no issue for the proceedings.
Theoretically, it is not impossible to attend both the district court’s morning hearing and the Constitutional Court’s impeachment hearing in the afternoon Thursday.
The criminal trial’s pretrial hearing and detention cancellation review are relatively simple procedures that are not anticipated to take much time.
However, Yoon’s legal team has argued that handling both trials on the same day would be challenging.
While 15 lawyers have been appointed for his criminal trial and 21 lawyers for the impeachment trial, thirteen of them, including Yoon Kap-keun, Bae Bo-yoon, Seok Dong-hyun and Hwang Kyo-ahn, are involved in both cases.
Meanwhile, on Monday morning a group of staunch Yoon supporters staged protests outside the home of acting Constitutional Court Chief Moon Hyung-bae, demanding his resignation.
Protesters have criticized Moon over allegations that explicit content was shared on the webpage for his high school alumni community, hurling insults at him such as “obscene ringleader,” “porn judge” and “chatroom predator.”
Police said Monday that they had received reports regarding allegations that multiple obscene materials had been uploaded to that particular website. Police said the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Unit is looking into the matter.
Local media reports showed that underage sexual abuse images had been shared online in Moon's high school alumni community. However, police say that even if any connection to him were discovered, applying charges of negligence against Moon would be difficult due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. According to police, the first date for uploading such content was in 2009.
ddd@heraldcorp.com
