Former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, who was arrested and indicted on charges related to the state of emergency on Dec. 3, has begun trial at the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 32, presided over by Chief Judge Kang Wan-soo.
On the 20th, the Seoul Central District Court assigned the case of former Minister Lee to the Criminal Division 32, which specializes in economic cases. This division is composed of Chief Judge Kang Wan-soo (33rd Judicial Research and Training Institute) and Associate Judges Shin Ji-won (36th) and Shin Young-bin (8th bar exam). It is currently hearing the first trial of the case involving allegations against the SPC Group management of coercing withdrawal from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
Chief Judge Kang Wan-soo (33rd Judicial Research and Training Institute) has served as a judge at the Gwangju District Court, Uijeongbu District Court, Seoul Northern District Court, and Seoul High Court before working as Chief Judge at the Chuncheon District Court Gangneung Branch and the Uijeongbu District Court. He also served as an Associate Judge in the Seoul High Court's appeals division for the bribery and embezzlement case involving Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, related to the 'state affair corruption' scandal.
Earlier, the special prosecutor on insurrection indicted former Minister Lee on charges of engaging in an important task of insurrection, abuse of power, and perjury on the 19th. Former Minister Lee is accused of failing to prevent the illegal declaration of martial law, effectively aiding and abetting it, in his capacity as the Minister responsible for overseeing martial law during normal times.
He is also accused of sequentially participating in former President Yoon Suk-yeol's insurrection crime by delivering directives for power outages and water cutoff to the Korean National Police Agency and the National Fire Agency, and of having testified falsely during the impeachment trial of former President Yoon held at the Constitutional Court in February, claiming that he had never received such directives.