President Yoon’s formal impeachment hearing at the Constitutional Court is just a week away.
With that, the National Assembly’s legal representatives and the president’s team have engaged in a war of words, particularly over the issue of withdrawing the insurrection charge.
Our political correspondent Shin Ha-young reports.
Tension is growing between the National Assembly and Yoon’s team over the removal of insurrection charges on the docket for the president’s impeachment trial.
As President Yoon Suk Yeol’s first formal impeachment hearing is scheduled for a week from now, both the National Assembly’s impeachment committee and Yoon’s legal team have escalated their arguments, especially over the removal of the insurrection charge.
This follows the Assembly’s statement last week at the second preparatory hearing that it would no longer contest whether the martial law declaration constitutes insurrection under criminal law, aiming to focus the proceedings on whether Yoon violated the Constitution to speed up the trial.
The president’s side and the ruling party have criticized the removal, arguing that the Assembly should hold a new vote on the impeachment motion.
Yoon’s legal team said in a written statement on Tuesday that the impeachment should be dismissed, citing that “withdrawing the insurrection charge in the impeachment motion isn’t just removing one of two charges; it removes 80 percent of the impeachment resolution.”
On the same day, the National Assembly’s legal team refuted the controversy, reaffirming its plan to frame Yoon’s insurrection as a constitutional violation, in line with the nature of the impeachment trial, and to seek a ruling.
“The key in the grounds for impeachment is ‘constitutional disruption by the chief conspirator of insurrection,’ and it has remained unchanged throughout the preparation process. We urge the court to review it in full.”
Regarding the call for a new vote on the impeachment motion due to the removal of the insurrection charge, the Assembly’s legal representative stated that this was unnecessary since the grounds for impeachment haven’t changed.
The Constitutional Court has said that modifying the impeachment charges is not covered by explicit provisions and that the matter is for the bench to decide.
Meanwhile, after holding two preparatory hearings, the court decided to hold hearings twice a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, starting January 14th, excluding the Lunar New Year holiday of Seollal.
Shin Ha-young, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=279688
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