Choi Do-sul Refuses to Testify

Former presidential secretary for general affairs Choi Do-sul, called as a witness on Korea`s first presidential impeachment, completely refused to give testimony during its fourth open hearing.

"I will refuse to give all kinds of testimonies as I think giving testimony at the Constitutional Court may affect the case under criminal trial," said Choi, adding, "I have made enough statements so far at the request of the prosecution, special counsel and the court, which were noted in relevent documents,"

The court (led by chief judge and court president Yun Young-chul) requested former secreatary Choi to give testimony, saying, "We can`t accept comprehensive rejection for giving testimony," but it broke off its witness examination as Choi`s insistence on refusal did not yield.

The court made known that it would take adequate disciplinary measures after judging whether there were reasonable reasons for Choi`s rejection.

Ahn Hee-jung, attending together as a witness, insisted that he had played a leading role for running the company named Jangsucheon since 1988 and that President Roh had never been involved in the transfer of illegal funds, suspected from the liquidation of debts of the company and the receiving of illegal funds from companies including Lotte Shopping and Taegwang Industry.

The court judges will open a general conference on April 22 and change general opinions about legal proceeding including degrees of discipline on Choi. In the meantine, opposition lawmakers, acting as prosecutors, submitted economic indicators held by economic organizations regarding economic breaking, one of the reasons for the impeachment, and plan to raise additional proposals for evidence taking into consideration investigation documents related to corruption of close aides some time in the future.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com