Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, wearing a baseball cap reading “Make Korea Great Again,” greets supporters gathered near the presidential residence in Seoul’s Yongsan District, Friday, as he departs the premises. Joint Press Corps
Impeached President Yoon continues the tradition of if you are a conservative President in South Korea you will be prosecuted afterwards and likely jailed:
Disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to stand trial Monday on charges of orchestrating an insurrection through his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, marking his first formal court appearance since being removed from office by the Constitutional Court early this month.
The first hearing, at which Yoon is required to appear, is to take place at the Seoul Central District Court and has drawn criticism for shielding the ousted leader from public view — a departure from the manner in which former presidents were tried in criminal court. (…….)
With his appearance at the Seoul Central District Court’s pretrial hearing of his criminal trial in February, Yoon became the first sitting president to go on trial for criminal charges.
But Yoon is far from the first former president to stand trial, as prior to Yoon, Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye all faced criminal charges after their respective presidencies.
According to the Criminal Act, those convicted of leading an insurrection can face either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
You can read more at the link.
It is moving day for the Yoon family:
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to leave the presidential residence Friday to return to his private residence in southern Seoul, officials said Thursday, following his removal from office last week.
“Yoon plans to leave the official residence at 5 p.m. Friday move to his private residence,” a senior presidential official said in a press notice.
The Presidential Security Service (PSS) has reportedly completed organizing a private residence security team of about 40 people for Yoon. Under the current law, Yoon can receive protection from the PSS for up to 10 years.
Yoon’s private residence is located at the Acrovista apartment complex in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, and he previously stayed there for six months even after his presidential inauguration in May 2022.
Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, are reportedly considering moving to another private residence in the capital area later because they own as many as 11 pet dogs and cats and the presence of security guards may cause some inconveniences for neighbors.
It seems like it would be tough for a former President to live in an apartment building because of the impact all the security requirements would have on their neighbors. It makes sense they would likely try and find house to live in that would not cause so impact to neighbors like living in an apartment would cause.
The impeachment charges against Han have been dropped which has caused him to be reinstated as the interim President:
The Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, reinstating him as acting president in the ongoing turmoil over suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law.
Han’s impeachment was dismissed in a 5-1 vote by the court’s eight justices. Two justices voted to reject the impeachment motion entirely.
The ruling came three months after the National Assembly impeached the prime minister and then acting president over his alleged role in Yoon’s Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, among other reasons.
Four of the five justices who voted to dismiss Han’s impeachment acknowledged there were violations of the Constitution and the law in his decision to defer the appointment of additional justices to the court, but noted it did not justify his removal from office.
As the only justice to uphold the impeachment, however, Justice Chung Kye-sun said the violations were “serious” enough to warrant his dismissal.
You can read more at the link, but I think people should not read too much into this dismissal as it relates to impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol. None of the justices believed that Han had anything to do with the martial law declaration:
The six justices who voted to either dismiss or uphold the impeachment said there was no evidence to back the National Assembly’s accusations that Han took proactive action to give legitimacy to Yoon’s martial law bid, such as by convening a Cabinet meeting ahead of its declaration.
For Yoon to get his charges dismissed he needed to convince the judges that his martial law declaration did not violate the ROK constitution and laws which is very different charges than what Han was facing. With Han impeachment decision now completed it will be interesting to see if the Constitutional Court releases their decision on Yoon at the end of the week.
Here was a Sunday surprise for impeached President Yoon:
Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was released from jail Saturday, a day after a court’s ruling that allowed him to stand trial without physical detention over his failed bid to impose martial law in December.
Waving to his supporters, Yoon walked out of the Seoul Detention Center, 52 days after he was detained on charges of inciting an insurrection. However, impeachment and criminal trials against Yoon will continue.
Yoon’s release came shortly after Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung decided not to appeal the court’s ruling to release the suspended president.
Bowing deeply to his supporters, Yoon arrived at his official residence in central Seoul on Saturday evening.
(Yonhap)
You can read more at the link.
If Yoon was trying to arrest members of the Korean parliament, it was the most incompetent coup attempt ever:
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday he ordered sending troops to offices of the National Election Commission (NEC) during his martial law declaration as he has suspected election fraud allegations.
Yoon made the admission while attending the fifth formal hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, where he again denied allegations that he ordered military commanders to drag lawmakers out of parliament in an attempt to prevent them from blocking the martial law imposition. (……)
Yoon is also alleged to have sent military troops to the National Assembly to keep lawmakers from voting down the martial law declaration and to have planned to arrest key political figures.
“Nothing actually happened (during martial law decree) … I feel like we are chasing the moon’s shadow on a lake,” Yoon said. “You would know the true nature of this case if you saw it based on common sense.”
Yoon claimed that dragging lawmakers from parliament could not have been possible as there are thousands of civilians in the National Assembly compound and troops were withdrawn after martial law was lifted.
You can read more at the link.
Here is impeached President Yoon’s opinion on his martial law decree:
Indicted over charges of leading an insurrection in December, President Yoon Suk Yeol defended his decision to declare martial law in a meeting with his legal representatives on Tuesday.
Seok Dong-hyeon, one of Yoon’s lawyers, told reporters that Yoon wondered aloud how his decision to impose martial law on Dec. 3 could be considered an act of insurrection when “everything was done within the boundaries of the Constitution.” (…….)
According to Seok, Yoon said he exercised his constitutional rights to declare martial law to inform the people of the crisis that the nation was facing, with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) having taken over parliament.
Yoon also noted that he immediately lifted the martial law once the National Assembly voted down his declaration.
Yoon told his lawyers that his action could not constitute an act of insurrection because there had not been any bloodshed or casualties, nor had there been any arrest of politicians.
Seok said Yoon claimed that he had never intended to maintain martial law for an extended stretch of time because he had not prepared any manual on how to run the administrative and judicial branches in such a state, and because he had fully expected the National Assembly to promptly vote it down.
You can read more at the link.
At least Yoon was allowed out of jail to finally attend the impeachment trial:
President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared for the first time at his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, speaking of his long-held belief in “liberal democracy” and asking the bench to consider him favorably.
Yoon arrived at the court in a convoy escorted by the Presidential Security Service from the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just south of the capital, where he has been held in custody since last Wednesday.
At 2 p.m., he entered the courtroom, dressed in a suit and red tie, and sat waiting for the eight justices to arrive for the third hearing of the trial deliberating his impeachment over his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law.
You can read more at the link.
