Former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s criminal insurrection trial over his short-lived martial law imposition, will be put on hold, as courts across the country begin a summer recess on Monday.
The Seoul Central District Court, where Yoon’s trial is being held, is scheduled to enter a two-week annual summer recess period from Monday to Aug. 8, a notice posted on its website showed Sunday.
During this period, the court will have a reduced schedule for hearings. For all civil cases, hearings and preparatory and conciliation proceedings will be temporarily halted. Dates for criminal trials without detention and hearings and trials that “do not have a significant impact on human rights” will not be held in the cited period.
However, hearings on motions for provisional attachment or preliminary injunctions of civil cases, reviews of criminal trials for defendants held in custody, detention hearings before arrest and related reviews, will be carried out as scheduled during recess.
Other trials and proceedings can also continue, if the court deems it necessary.
Other courts nationwide will adopt similar rules during their respective summer recess period, which would take place around late July to mid-August.
The Seoul Central District Court has so far held 12 hearings for Yoon’s insurrection trial. Yoon has not attended his trial for three consecutive hearings, citing poor health. He is currently detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just south of the capital.
After the two-week recess wraps-up, Yoon faces a separate trial at the Seoul Central District Court, over additional charges of abuse of power and violating the Presidential Records Act, tied to his martial law bid. The charges were brought by the special counsel team led by prosecutor Cho Eun-seok and the first preparatory hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19.
The next hearings in the trials of Yoon’s aides, including that of former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, will not take place until mid-August. Kim has been charged with insurrection and abuse of power for deploying the military to the National Assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to block lawmakers from voting to overturn Yoon’s martial law decree.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
