SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in court docket Thursday for a listening to the place his legal professionals contested his arrest on a felony cost alleging he was orchestrating a rise up when he briefly imposed martial regulation in December.
Safety was heightened because the motorcade transporting Yoon arrived on the Seoul Central District Court docket and dozens of his supporters rallied close by.
The preliminary listening to will contain discussions of witnesses and different preparations for his felony trial, and the court docket was additionally to assessment the request by Yoon’s legal professionals to cancel his arrest and launch him from custody. Such challenges are hardly ever profitable.
Yoon was indicted Jan. 26 on the rise up cost carrying a possible punishment of loss of life or life in jail. In South Korea, presidents have immunity from most felony prosecutions, however not on prices of rise up or treason.
The indictment alleges his imposition of martial regulation was an unlawful try and shut down the Nationwide Meeting and arrest politicians and election authorities. The conservative Yoon has mentioned his martial regulation declaration was supposed as a short lived warning to the liberal opposition and that he had at all times deliberate to respect lawmakers’ will in the event that they voted to carry the measure.
Yoon’s presidential powers have been suspended when he was impeached Dec. 14, and South Korea’s Constitutional Court is nearing a call on whether or not to formally take away him from workplace or dismiss the Meeting’s impeachment and reinstate him.
Martial regulation was lifted about six hours after Yoon declared it however has brought on political turmoil, disrupted high-level diplomacy and examined the resiliency of the nation’s democracy. Yoon’s conservative supporters rioted at the Seoul Western District Court after it licensed his arrest final month, whereas his legal professionals and ruling social gathering have brazenly questioned the credibility of courts and regulation enforcement establishments dealing with the case.
Yoon has continued to specific contempt for his liberal rivals for obstructing his agenda and endorsed baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud to justify his ill-fated authoritarian push.
Yoon’s protection minister, police chief and several other army commanders have additionally been arrested and indicted on rise up, abuse of energy and different prices associated to the martial regulation decree, which concerned a whole lot of closely armed troops deployed to the Nationwide Meeting and Nationwide Election Fee workplaces.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
