"I Can't Trust the Panel That Convicted Han Duck-soo" ... Yoon, Kim Yong-hyun, and Roh Sang-won File Recusal Requests One After Another

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\r[Financial News] Yoon Suk Yeol, followed by former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun and other key defendants, have filed recusal requests one after another against the Special Panel for Insurrection Cases, which is hearing the main insurrection case related to the December 3 Martial Law. They argued that the panel had already ruled the martial law declaration to be an act of "insurrection" in the case of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, making a fair trial impossible.
The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 12-1, the Special Panel for Insurrection Cases, presided over the first appellate hearing on the insurrection charges against Yoon and others on the 14th. Yoon and his legal team did not appear in court that day after filing a recusal request the previous day.
The panel said, "We will separate the proceedings for the defendant Yoon Suk Yeol," and added, "The hearing date for defendant Yoon Suk Yeol will be set later."
The panel also said it had dismissed and rejected the request filed by Kim's side the previous day for a constitutional review referral. It explained, "After discussion, we found it difficult to regard the provisions as unconstitutional, and for some clauses, we also found insufficient grounds for them to be a prerequisite for trial." In this context, a prerequisite for trial means that the constitutionality of the law in question affects the outcome of the case.
Kim's side then filed a recusal request, arguing that the composition of the panel itself was unconstitutional. Ha-Sang Lee, Kim's lawyer, claimed, "They judged something over which they had no jurisdiction," calling it "self-contradictory."
Regarding the process of forming the Special Panel for Insurrection Cases, he also argued that "the involvement of the full judges' meeting in forming the panel was an arbitrary arrangement without legal basis," and that bias was already evident because the panel had already found Han Duck-soo guilty of insurrection.
Earlier, the panel found Han guilty of aiding and abetting a major duty in insurrection and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on the 7th. Yoon's side also filed a similar recusal request the previous day.
In court that day, not only Kim but also Roh Sang-won, former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command, and Kim Yong-gun, former head of the military police unit of the Third Field Army Command and a colonel, filed recusal requests one after another.
The special counsel team said the recusal requests were clearly intended to delay the trial and asked the panel to dismiss them directly through a summary rejection.
\rUnder the Criminal Procedure Act of the Republic of Korea, when a recusal request is filed against a panel, the trial proceedings are, in principle, suspended and another panel decides whether to accept the request. However, if it is clearly intended to delay the proceedings, the panel that received the request may reject it directly.
Instead of a summary rejection, however, the panel decided to separate the proceedings for the three men as well and set hearing dates later. It explained, "Although it is somewhat regrettable, at this stage we cannot say the purpose of delaying the trial is obvious," adding, "We judged that it would be better to sort out the procedure first and then proceed for clarity."
After that, Kim, Roh, and Kim Yong-gun all left the courtroom, and the trial proceeded first with a focus on the defendants from the police leadership, including former Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency Jo Ji-ho.
Whether the trial will proceed for the four defendants, including Yoon, is expected to depend on whether another panel accepts the recusal requests in the future.  
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scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter