Bundled Submission of Application for Evidence in Impeachment Case

The first Constitutional Court hearing on Korea`s unprecedented presidential impeachment ended in just 15 minutes yesterday as President Roh Moo-hyun failed to appear. The hearing was held at 2 p.m. yesterday, and a second hearing will take place at 2 p.m. on April 2.

“According to the rule of the Constitutional Court which stipulates that a hearing shall be delayed in the event of a defendant’s failure to attend, we will delay the hearing until Friday at 2 p.m.," said Court President Yun Young-chul. “The hearing will proceed with president’s attorneys if the president fails to attend again.”

The court also said that it would receive application for admission of bundled evidence at the second hearing and decide whether to take the evidence after examining its validity.

The trial and the ruling of the case will proceed earlier than expected as the court decided for the second hearing to be held only three days after the first one and to receive application for the admission of evidence all together at once.

The National Assembly`s Judiciary and Legislation Committee said, “Since Rep. Kim Ki-choon, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is running for the general election, he is physically unavailable on April 2, the day when the election campaign starts.” The committee plans to submit a request today for a later hearing scheduled after the general elections.

Chairman Kim, who is also a chief prosecutor in the case, requested a change in the hearing date, saying the committee needs time to review the documents of President Roh’s defense counsel team and to prepare for the election, but the request was denied.

Moon Jae-in, former presidential secretary for Civil Affairs, and Roh`s attorney said, “We are grateful that the court scheduled an early hearing.” He added, “We have already prepared what we would say for today`s hearing, so there is no problem with the early schedule.”

The Constitutional Court is still reviewing whether it is legally valid to proceed with a hearing with only the proxies of the two parties present if neither the president nor the chairman of the judiciary committee appears.

Eleven of President Roh’s attorneys, including Moon Jae-in, Ha Kyung-chul, Yoo Hyun-seok, Han Seung-heon and Lee Yong-hoon, appeared at the hearing, and 12 came from the National Assembly’s prosecution team including Chief Prosecutor Kim, Rep. Kim Yong-gyoon, and the lawyers Lim Gwang-kyu and Han Byung-chae.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com