Seoul: The expelled leader of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, argued that his brief statement of martial law at the end of last year “was not a coup d’etat”, since he appeared in court on Monday on Monday for the beginning of a criminal trial for charges that led an insurrection.
The attempt of the martial law, which lasted approximately six hours before Yoon retreated in front of the parliamentary opposition and public protests, immersed the country in months of agitation and led the Constitutional Court to eliminate it from the presidency this month for violating constitutional powers.
After leaving his home in a caravan on Monday, Yoon, who has denied all the charges against him, entered the Central District Court of Seoul with a marine blue demand and a red tie.
At the beginning of the procedures, the prosecutors presented their case by arguing that Yoon lacked the legal reasons to declare martial law and accused him of trying to paralyze state institutions such as Parliament.
“The defendant … made it impossible for constitutional institutions to exercise their authority based on an illegal statement,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.
Yoon, who was the main prosecutor of the country before becoming president, defended himself in the Court, speaking extensively to refute the prosecution’s accusations.
“Martial law is not a coup d’etat,” Yoon said.
He denied paralyzing the government and said that martial law was necessary to alert people about how the majority opposition party was in the stone government by accusing more than 20 officials, which he saw as dangerous.
“This was a” martial law ‘for the nation … I knew that this martial law would end in noon, one day, “Yoon said.
Yoon said that although he had communicated this intention to the former Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun, the military officers who carried out the order seemed to have exceeded it because they were used to training for the martial law under different guidelines.
Insurrection load
Two superior military officers took the witness position in the afternoon.
Both, including Cho Sung-Hyun of the Army Capital Defense Command, testified that their superior officer ordered them to send troops to “drag” legislators outside the Parliament during Yoon’s martial law order.
Yoon denied this accusation, saying that he had not given such order.
The declaration of the martial law, which cited the need to eliminate “anti-state” elements, rose after parliamentary employees used barricades and fire extinguishers to avoid special operations soldiers who tried to enter Parliament, where legislators voted to reject martial law.
The position of the creation of the insurrection facing the accused leader is punished with the life imprisonment or even death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
The declaration of Yoon’s martial law on December 3 shocked South Koreans and created chaos in all areas of society, economics and foreign policy, the Constitutional Court said to fail it to take it out of the position.
Agitation has exposed even more the deep social divisions between conservatives and liberals and greater pressure on the institutions and the military, which had been found in a dilemma on whether martial law.
The former president returned to his private home on Friday of the official residence, with crowds of conservative supporters who came to greet his caravan.
Yoon moved to his wife and pets to his apartment, just a few hundred meters from the Seoul court, where he obtained great legal victories as a prosecutor, such as condemning another accused president Park Geun-Hye.
He remains challenging and has committed to “support” his followers. The opposition Democratic Party criticized Yoon on Monday as a delusional for not making any sincere apology.
The country will now celebrate a quick election on June 3. The questions continue to overcome if Yoon could play a role.
