SEOL: South Korea’s removed leader Yoon Suk Yeol claimed that his short martial arts statement late last year was “not a coup d’Atat” when he appeared in court on Monday before the start of a criminal trial in relation to the prosecutor that he brought a revolt.
The Martial Law trial, which lasted about six hours before Yoon supported himself in the light of parliamentary opposition and public protests, threw the country for months with turmoil and led to the Constitutional Court removing him from the Presidency this month for violation of constitutional powers.
After leaving his house in a motorcade on Monday, Yoon, who has denied all charges against him, entered the Seoul Central District Court wearing a dark fleet and red tie.
At the beginning of the procedure, prosecutors presented their case by arguing that Yoon lacked the legal reasons for declaring a fighting and accused him of trying to paralyze state institutions as parliament.
“The defendant … made it impossible for constitutional institutions to exercise their authority based on an illegal statement,” the prosecution said.
Yoon, who was the country’s main lawyer, before becoming president, defended himself in court and spoke in the long run to refute the prosecution’s claims.
“Martial Law is not a coup,” Yoon said.
He denied the paralyzing government and said that martial arts were needed to warn the people of how the majority’s opposition party Stone in voting the government by impeaching more than 20 officials he saw as dangerous.
“This was a peaceful ‘message martial art’ to the nation … I knew this martial arts would end within half a day, one day,” Yoon said.
Yoon said that although he had conveyed this intention of ex-defense minister Kim Yong-Hyun, military officials who performed the order seemed to have exceeded it because they were used to educating for martial arts according to different guidelines.
Uprising
Two senior military officers took the witness in the afternoon.
Both of them, including Cho Sung-Hyun from the Army’s capital defense command, testified that they were ordered by their overall officer to send troops to “pull” legislators out of parliament under Yoon’s martial arts order.
Yoon denied this claim and said he had not given such an order.
The Martial Law Declaration, which cited the need to eradicate “anti-state” elements, was lifted after parliamentary staff used barricades and fire extinguishers to avert special operations soldiers trying to enter parliament where legislators voted to reject combat sports.
The charge of masterminding uprising that the impeached leader faces can be punished by life -long imprisonment or even death, even though South Korea has not executed anyone for decades.
Yoon’s Martial Law Declaration on December 3rd shocked South Koreans and created chaos in all areas of society, the economy and foreign policy, the Constitutional Court said when he gave him out of office.
The upheaval has further exposed deep social canyons between conservatives and liberals and increased pressure on institutions and the military, which had been in a quarter about whether to enforce martial arts.
The former president returned to his private home on Friday from the official residence, where crowds of conservative supporters turned out to greet his motorcade.
Yoon moved back with his wife and their pets to their apartment, only a few hundred meters away from the Seoul Court, where he scored great legal victories as charges, such as judging another impeached president Park Geun-Hye.
He remains defiantly and has promised to “stand by” his followers. Opposition democratic party, Yoon slammed on Monday as delusional not to have made any sincere apology.
The country will now hold a snap selection on June 3rd. Questions remain about whether yoon can still play a role.
