ROK Constitutional Court Says Impeachment Ruling Will Be A Long Process
|It looks like it will be a few months before the ROK Constitutional Court rules on the legality of the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye:
The Constitutional Court said Monday it will scrutinize all grounds cited in the National Assembly’s motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye, indicating that the trial will be a long process, possibly as long as six months.
The court held its first meeting Monday morning to discuss how it will proceed with the trial. The National Assembly on Friday passed a motion to impeach Park for alleged constitutional and legal violations, as she gave a friend influence in state affairs.
Justice Bae Bo-yoon, spokesman of the Constitutional Court, said Monday that the court will review all grounds cited in the motion, rejecting speculation that the court would review only key charges to reach a speedy ruling.
“We cannot use our discretion to have selective hearings,” he said. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link.
Did Park actually do anything that actually rises to the level of impeachment? Or is there any proof that she did?
Park let Choi revise her speech and some classified into was found on her laptop. At the top of my head, those are the only things that have been proven. I heard Park’s beauticians denying giving her botox treatment during the missing 7 hours, although that was a few weeks ago.
I’m not under any illusion that the opposition party’s decision to impeach was based on an impartial assessment of the evidence. The pro-Park judges might also ignore evidence to exonerate her, although that might be difficult with public sentiment being what it is.
One thing is certain – America dodged a bullet by not electing Clinton.
@Joseph Lee, I would say she passing off classified information to Choi to review is pretty serious. Plus Park was appointing a number of ministers that were vetted by Choi which is not illegal but shady. As far as the shaking down of corporations to donate money to the two organizations Choi managed I have seen nothing yet linking Park to this. So if the court is going strictly by illegal activity the passing of classified information is the most serious, but the other things going on have greatly inflamed public sentiment. I can’t help, but think that the Constitutional Court will consider public sentiment when making their ruling.
Can you imagine the protests that would happen if they rule in favor of keeping Park?
Park Geun-hye needs to call Hillary for tips on how to spin mishandling classified information in “nothing that big, just people blowing it all out of proportion.”
If this goes until March when the court is down to seven judges – the vote will require six of those remaining seven to uphold the impeachment. The next regularly scheduled Presidential election is 20 December 2017. It’s not inconceivable that the judges might take that into consideration if this stretches into April or May (150-180 days) because the election after impeachment would take place 60 days after the impeachment is upheld – so that would be June or July 2017.