SEOUL, South Korea
South Korea's impeached President, Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in court on Thursday for the first hearing of his criminal trial over insurrection charges.
Yoon arrived amid high
security at the Seoul central district court, becoming the first
South Korean president to stand trial in a criminal case.
In December, Yoon briefly
imposed martial law in South Korea and parliament subsequently voted to
impeach him in mid-December.
Prosecutors have accused the
suspended president of being the "ringleader of an insurrection".
They called for quick
proceedings considering the case's "gravity", but Yoon's lawyers
said they needed more time to review records.
Yoon's lawyer Kim Hong-il said
his declaration of martial law was not intended to paralyse the state.
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."
Last month, prosecutors
indicted Yoon, accusing him of orchestrating an insurrection through his
brief imposition of martial law
Initially, Yoon barricaded
himself inside his Seoul compound before eventually being arrested in January.
He was formally indicted on
January 26 on the charge of rebellion.
The Constitutional
Court is separately considering whether to formally dismiss Yoon or
reinstate him as president.
The crime of insurrection is
one of the few criminal charges for which the president of South Korea does not
enjoy immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death. However, South
Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
Yoon, a conservative, has
steadfastly denied any wrongdoing. He called his martial law a legitimate act
of governance meant to raise public awareness of the danger posed by a
liberal-controlled National Assembly obstructing his agenda and impeaching top officials.
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