President Yoon Suk Yeol steps out of his security vehicle and greets supporters as he walks outside Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, March 8. (Yonhap)
President Yoon Suk Yeol steps out of his security vehicle and greets supporters as he walks outside Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, March 8. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol won’t appear during the Constitutional Court’s ruling on his impeachment on Friday 11 a.m., his legal representatives told reporters Thursday, citing security concerns.

They said the decision was made after considering worries about safety, crowd control and congestion in the vicinity of the courthouse.

Instead, they said they were considering sending out a message to the public following the ruling.

The suspended president was last seen on March 8 when he was released from Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, after the Seoul Central District Court backed the president’s appeal against his detention, claiming the detention lacked legal grounds and was unlawful.

Since then, he has been staying at a presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu.

It was widely expected that Yoon would not appear before the court for his impeachment ruling, considering the precedents of presidential impeachments. Both ex-President Roh Moo-hyun and ex-President Park Geun-hye failed to attend court on the day of the verdict on their impeachments in 2004 and 2017, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court announced Tuesday that it would make the final ruling on Yoon’s impeachment on Friday at 11 a.m.

The court has deliberated the case for five weeks after concluding the hearings on Feb. 25, marking the longest period of deliberations among South Korea's three presidential impeachment trials.

The ruling will take legal effect from the moment the judge delivers the court’s decision.


sj_lee@heraldcorp.com