The parliamentary lawyers of South Korea who seek the elimination of President Yoon Suk Yeol for their imposition of short -duration martial law compared it to a dictator in the final arguments during his political trial judgment on Tuesday.
Yoon was expected to make a statement of closing later at the hearing before the Constitutional Court that reviewed his political trial, while public hearings conclude and his political destiny is placed in the hands of eight judges.
Yoon faces the elimination of the position less than three years in its five -year presidency if the Court defends the accusation of Parliament, which accused him of declare the martial law on December 3 without justifiable constitutional reasons.
Lee Kwang-Beom, one of the lawyers of Parliament, compared Yoon with South Korean autocratic leaders, including Park Chung-Hee and Chun Doo-Hwan.
Yoon wanted to create a world where each of his words was written in the Constitution, and tried to privatize the country and reign on the Constitution, Lee argued.
“We call this dictatorship,” he said. “At the time he declared martial law, he effectively resigned from his position as president of our Democratic Republic.”
Another lawyer said that Yoon’s electoral fraud accusations were conspiracy theories that have had a “fatal” impact on the credibility of the electoral system.
The president has said in his trial that he had the right to declare martial law, but that he never intended to impose full military domain, instead, argued that he intended to warn about the abuse of the most parliamentary of the Democratic Party of his opposition.
The judges are expected to take days to govern on whether to eliminate it from office or restore it.
Yoon has said that the martial law, which lasted only six hours before terminating the decree, was not a failure, but simply ended before what he intended.
He said that the accusations that ordered the military commanders to enter the Parliament to eliminate the legislators gathered to lift the decree of the martial law were not sense because “nothing really happened” and no one was harmed.
Yoon’s arguments brought a representative of the Parliament that the president was unable to judge what constituted a national emergency that requires such an extreme act and that martial law could try to impose again if it was restored.
His shocking announcement of the martial law, which prohibited political and parliamentary activity, triggered a constitutional crisis that also led to the dismissal of the prime minister who was an interim president. The Minister of Finance currently leads the country.
Yoon is detained at the Seoul detention center after being arrested for a separate criminal case, accusing him of leading an insurrection. The former prosecutor is the first president to face a criminal trial.
The Constitutional Court has not said when it will issue its ruling in Yoon, but is up to six months from December 14, when it registered the case.
Former President Park Geun-Hye was withdrawn from office in 2017 by the Constitutional Court 11 days after the final arguments in his dismissal judgment.
If Yoon is eliminated, a new presidential election must be held within 60 days.
