DEVELOPING STORY,
South Korea’s Constitutional Court said that President Yoon Suk-yeol ‘violated’ people’s basic rights by declaring martial law.
Seoul, South Korea – South Korea’s Constitutional Court has unanimously voted to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol over his declaration of martial law late last year.
As he read the verdict in court on Friday morning, acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae dismissed each of Yoon’s reasons for declaring martial law and said the president had overstepped his authority by deploying troops on the streets of the capital in December.
“The defendant mobilised military and police forces to dismantle the authority of constitutional institutions and infringed upon the fundamental rights of the people. In doing so, he abandoned his constitutional duty to uphold the constitution and gravely betrayed the trust of the Korean people,” Moon said.
“Such unlawful and unconstitutional conduct constitutes an act that cannot be tolerated under the constitution,” the justice continued.
“The negative consequences and ripple effects of these actions are substantial, and the benefit of restoring constitutional order through removal from office outweighs the national costs associated with the dismissal of a sitting president,” he said.
The opposition Democratic Party described the verdict as a “people’s victory,” while Yoon’s ruling People Power Party said it “humbly accepts” the court’s ruling, according to South Korea official Yonhap news agency.
“Today marks a historic day when we defended the Constitution and safeguarded democracy against the forces that sought to destroy it,” said Cho Seung-rae, the Democratic Party’s senior spokesperson.
Yoon briefly declared martial law late on the evening of December 3, claiming that antistate and North Korean forces had infiltrated the government.
But senior military and police officials who were sent to shut down the country’s National Assembly have testified that Yoon ordered them to detain rival politicians and prevent the assembly from voting to lift his military rule order.
South Korea’s National Assembly voted to impeach Yoon on December 14, but they needed the approval of the Constitutional Court to formally expel him.
The government now has 60 days to hold a presidential election. Acting President Han Duck-soo will remain in his position until then.
Outside the courthouse, the verdict was met with cheers by critics of Yoon.
The pro-Yoon crowd of mostly older protesters, by contrast, was relatively quiet, with a few grumbles of “rigged election” and “corruption” rippling through the crowd.
The streets surrounding the courthouse in Seoul’s Anguk district were fortified by hundreds of police buses in anticipation of possible unrest. The barricades were so large that even empty tourist buses were commandeered to fill the gaps in some streets, while the nearby subway station, local businesses and schools were also closed for the day.
An estimated 14,000 police officers remain stationed across Seoul following the verdict.
The tightened security precautions are in part a response to the violent protests that erupted in South Korea in 2017 following the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, which caught authorities off guard. Four people were killed during the protests and more injured.
Yoon’s impeachment trial has become another political lightning rod for South Korea, with protests both in favour of and against the president following his arrest in January.
Yoon’s supporters stormed a court building in Seoul in January after the now ex-president’s detention was extended.
Source
:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
