Time for Final Decision on Impeachment, Outline to be Disclosed

The outlined timeline for the Constitutional Court’s final decision on President Roh’s impeachment is expected to be disclosed during its fifth hearing, scheduled for today.

“The time of the final decision will be generally disclosed dependent upon the scale of additional evidence we adopt during general conference,” said Presiding Justice Choo Sun-hoe.

The court discussed whether or not to examine the President directly, and whether or not to call Moon Byung-wook, the chairman of Sun & Moon Company, Lee Kwang-jae, former presidential aide, and others as witnesses, as well as whether or not they should accept the prosecution’s secret investigation and criminal investigation documents as evidence. The judges also changed their opinions about the degree of discipline that should be taken on Choi Do-sul, former presidential secretary for General Affairs who refused to testify during the trial on April 20.

The court will make the conclusions drawn during today’s hearing public.

In the meantime, Parliament prosecutors submitted questioning matters for Yeo Taek-soo, former presidential personal secretary, and Shin Dong-in, Lotte Shopping chairman, both of whom were called as witnesses at today’s hearing before the court.

Prosecutors plan to aggressively cross-examine former-Secretary Yeo as to whether President Roh was there when 30 million won in cash was received, and whether or not President Roh knew about transfer of illegal political funds between Yeo and Chairman Shin.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com