Choo Kyung-ho, the former floor leader of the People Power Party who is accused of obstructing a vote on a National Assembly resolution demanding the lifting of the Dec. 3 martial law, appeared for a pretrial detention warrant hearing on the 2nd.
Choo arrived at the Seoul Central District Court at about 2:19 p.m. that day and said, "I expect a fair ruling from the court without political bias." However, Choo did not answer questions such as "When did you first learn about the martial law?", "There are People Power Party lawmakers who say they were actually blocked from voting; do you have anything to say to them?", and "What is your position to the public?"
Lee Jeong-jae, a senior judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, opened the substantive warrant review at 3 p.m. that day for Choo, who is accused of engaging in duties crucial to insurrection. From the special counsel investigating the insurrection case, six officials including Special Counsel Park Eok-su and Director General Choi Jae-soon attended the hearing. The result of Choo's detention warrant review is expected to come out by the morning of the 3rd, the first anniversary of the martial law, at the latest.
The special counsel arguing for detention said it prepared a 618-page A4 opinion and 304 PowerPoint (PPT) slides. The total volume of the opinion, including a 123-page appendix, comes to 741 pages.
With the special counsel's request for a detention warrant, this is the second case in which a detention hearing has been held for a sitting lawmaker with immunity from arrest, following lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong of the same party. Kweon was indicted under detention by the Kim Keon-hee special counsel on charges of violating the Political Funds Act. Choo is the first in connection with insurrection-related charges.
Choo is accused of intentionally obstructing the vote on the resolution demanding the lifting of martial law on Dec. 3 last year by changing the venue of the party caucus three times between the National Assembly and party headquarters on the day martial law was declared.
The special counsel believes Choo shared a consensus supportive of former President Yoon Suk-yeol's proclamation of martial law. The special counsel says that consensus was formed through a dinner at Yoon's official residence on Nov. 29 last year, a televised address after the proclamation, and a two-minute phone call with Yoon at 11:22 p.m. on Dec. 3.
The detention warrant application for Choo is also said to state that on the day of the martial law, Choo did not raise any issue with a phone call from Yoon regarding martial law and repeatedly ignored requests from then People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon to participate in the vote.
On the afternoon of the 27th of last month, the National Assembly held a plenary session and passed a motion consenting to Choo's arrest with 172 votes in favor out of a total of 180 votes, excluding People Power Party lawmakers who walked out. Following the passage of the motion by the National Assembly, the arrest consent notice was submitted to the Seoul Central District Court via the Ministry of Justice and the special counsel.
If a detention warrant is issued for Choo, the special counsel investigating the insurrection case, whose investigation period ends on the 14th, is expected to achieve its intended goal. It is also expected that the Democratic Party of Korea's demand for a "constitutional adjudication to dissolve an unconstitutional political party" against the People Power Party will grow.
If the warrant is dismissed, the Democratic Party may push ahead with a package of "judicial reform" bills, including ▲ a dedicated insurrection bench ▲ an increase in Supreme Court justices ▲ a law on distortion of justice ▲ a lawsuit for adjudication of trials ▲ abolition of the National Court Administration.