Holding Back Direct Questioning of President Roh

The nine justices of the Constitutional Court of Korea, whose head is Judge Yun Young-cheol, held the third open pleading on the case of President Roh Moo-hyun’s impeachment and adopted four witnesses --the former secretary to the president for the general affairs Choi Do-sul, Ahn Hee-jung, the former personal secretary for President Yeo Taek-su, and the president of the Lotte Shopping, Shin Dong-in.

However, the court held back on whether or not it would directly question President Roh.

The court fixed the date of the fourth open pleading on April 20 and announced that it will hold a witness questioning of Choi and Ahn that day and will also hold a questioning of Yeo and Shin in the fifth open pleading on April 23.

The court asked the Seoul Central District Court (SCDC) for copies of the trial records on six aides of Roh as well as the Central Election Management Committee for its assembly records on December 30, 2003 and March 3, 2004.

In addition, it decided to inquire if Roh spoke of his supporting of the Uri Party in the presidential press interview program by a TV newsman club’s invitation and its procedure on February 24 to the three main broadcasting stations-- KBS, MBC and SBS.

However, the court deferred whether it would request five people, including the former head of the Task Force of National Agenda Lee Kwang-jae, the president of the Sun&Moon Group Moon Byoung-uk, and the former vice president of the Sun&Moon Kim Seong-rae, as witnesses and whether it would adopt to request a verification of the prosecution’s aides corruption-related documents. It dismissed all additional requests for the examination of the remaining evidence.

Considering the contents of the adopted evidence request, it means that from now on, it will examine the two points of the election laws violation and the aides’ corruption among the three which are presented as reasons for the impeachment on a full scale. However, the court asked the Impeachment Committee to submit the already announced economic indicator while it dismissed a request for falsehood on such matters as macroeconomic indicator to major economic groups in relation to the reason of “failure in running national affairs.”

A group of attorneys answered, “We submit the court’s decision of examining evidence for the moment.”

The Impeachment Committee asked, “Let us grant questioning him in another place if not in the court,” by saying, “Directly questioning the president himself is inevitable without exception” on the fact that the court deferred a request of questioning the president.

Before that, the Impeachment Committee requested questioning of both the people concerned and the witnesses for 30 related people, including Roh and his aides on April 2. It also asked to submit the cashbook of Cheong Wa Dae, the president’s movement related report, a record of the president’s performance on the national affairs, and some parts of the SCDC’s assembly records while it requested investigation records on the presidential aides by the prosecution and the special probe as well as verification of trial records.

Choi and Ahn are standing trial after detention and indictment charged with raising a huge amount of illegal fund around the time of the 2002 presidential election. Yeo is also detained and indicted under accusation of receiving 30 million won from Moon of the Sun&Moon Group in December 2002 and 300 million won from Shin of the Lotte Shopping in August and September last year.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com