Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, former Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun, heart, and Yeo In-hyung, former commander of the Protection Counterintelligence Command / Courtesy of Constitutional Court docket
A Seoul court docket on Monday held the primary listening to of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s trial on costs of benefiting the enemy over allegations of dispatching army drones to Pyongyang in 2024.
The listening to happened on the Seoul Central District Court docket behind closed doorways, with Yoon, former Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun and Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Protection Counterintelligence Command, in attendance.
Yoon and the 2 others have been indicted on costs of aiding the enemy in connection to the alleged drone dispatch to North Korea’s capital in October 2024.
Particular counsel Cho Eun-suk’s group believes the alleged dispatch was aimed toward inciting the North’s retaliation, which might then be used as a pretext for Yoon’s martial legislation declaration two months later.
The group charged Yoon with “benefiting the enemy basically,” based mostly on its judgment that the drone dispatch led to the leak of army secrets and techniques to the North once they allegedly crashed close to Pyongyang.
The court docket’s bench stated it could resolve each session whether or not to proceed with the trial behind closed doorways, citing state secrets and techniques concerned within the case.
Yoon’s attorneys, nevertheless, accused the bench of bias and requested for its recusal, claiming that it thought of paperwork that had not been confirmed as proof in its evaluation of an arrest warrant for the previous president.
“This strongly raises doubts that the bench is conducting the trial having already shaped a prejudgment of the alleged details,” they stated.
The previous protection minister’s attorneys additionally sought the recusal of the bench, accusing it of unfairness in its resolution to subject an arrest warrant towards Kim.
Recusal requests are normally reviewed by different benches however they are often instantly dismissed if they’re decided to be a tactic to delay trial proceedings.
The ousted former president is standing trial on a number of costs in connection to his failed martial legislation bid, together with for main an riot.
