Park Geun-hye’s Lawyer States Prosecution Mostly Using News Articles as Evidence
I am not a lawyer so I am wondering if anyone who is a lawyer knows if news media articles can be considered evidence in a US court? If so how strong of evidence would that be?:
Former President Park Geun-hye attended her first court hearing over the corruption scandal that removed her from office and denied all charges against her, Tuesday.
This is the first time in 53 days that she has made a public appearance since she was arrested, March 31.
Handcuffed and with her trademark hairstyle, Park arrived at the Seoul Central District Court before entering the courtroom at 10 a.m.
Park and her confidant of 40 years Choi Soon-sil saw each other for the first time in eight months since Choi left for Germany last September after the corruption scandal broke out.
Park entered the courtroom first and sat looking straight ahead not turning her head even the slightest, while Choi entered the courtroom and sat two seats away from her, next to her attorney Lee Kyung-jae.
When asked by presiding Judge Kim Se-yun, on her current occupation, Park said, “I don’t have an occupation.”
When offered a chance to speak, Choi whimpered and said, “I am a sinner for having Park whom I’ve been close to for more than 40 years stand trial.”
“I do not believe Park was involved in any criminal activities, bribery or otherwise. I think the prosecution is pushing this too far, and I wish the court would clear her of the suspected wrongdoings thereby letting her remain as the president who devoted her life to the country.”
Choi blamed her former associate Park Won-oh, a former head of the Korea Equestrian Federation, over allegations that Samsung offered financial support for her daughter, the former dressage competitor Chung Yoo-ra.
“My daughter already had her own horse when she was in Germany. Then Park asked Samsung for support and Samsung bought a horse and a car. I can take responsibility for that, but not the charges by the prosecution that the support for my daughter was in return for the government-backed merger of Samsung’s two units,” she said.
Park’s defense attorney Yoo Young-ha said the charges against her lacked foundation and largely relied on imagination, inference and media reports.
“Most of the evidence submitted by the prosecution is news articles. The prosecution determined news reports valid as evidence in a criminal case,” he said. [Korea Times]
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You can read more at the link.
In America, Park would only be guilty if she was a Republican.
BTW, Trump was elected by Hollywood, not Russia…
http://68.media.tumblr.com/8fab336808c68a34b8899be81dc39c30/tumblr_o44i17yx3z1uhoc2qo1_1280.jpg
News articles are not evidence of anything other than the writer’s beliefs about what is the case, so they would have no standing in a court, at least, in North American terms. The prosecution would have to find the sources the reporter used and depose them in order to build the case. Of course, all this assumes that Park’s lawyers are not spinning things, that is, the prosecution has presented a couple of solid witness statements, but the defense is ignoring those, and focussing on the weak parts of the case in order to do a quick media spin. As well, if this is the actual case about to go forward, then we’re only looking at opening statements, which have about as much probative value as a closing argument, i.e., very little. I wish we had more detailed reporting in English so we could get a handle on things, but my impression of English language reporting in Korean is that it tends to sound-bites and superficiality. Arirang sometimes does in-depth videos, but they seem more North American oriented.
“Handcuffed and with her trademark hairstyle, Park arrived at the Seoul Central District Court before entering the courtroom at 10 a.m.”
Is it really necessary to show her off in handcuffs? That really feels like an extra helping of kangaroo for the court system.
@Jon Paul, thanks for the insight. It will be interesting to see how this trial plays out because I have yet to see the smoking gun that Park was a corrupt President. Choi on the other hand seems very shady.
At least Choi seems contrite… Never seen that from a leftist…
What happens if she’s found not guilty in this trial? It means she was essentially impeached for letting her friend edit her speeches and appointing cronies to certain posts?
Or it means that the leftist and their media empire have less power than we assumed…