At the sentencing hearing in the case of former President Yoon Suk-yeol's "insurrection trial ringleader charge," the defense's documentary evidence examination ended 11 hours after the trial began. The special counsel investigating the insurrection case is soon expected to seek a sentence for Yoon and the other defendants.
The Criminal Agreement Division 25 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Jee Kui-youn) opened the sentencing hearing at about 9:30 a.m. on charges that former President Yoon led an insurrection and that seven senior military and police leaders, including former Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Korean National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho, engaged in important duties related to the insurrection.
The documentary evidence examination for former Minister Kim and former Commissioner Cho ended on the 9th. On this day, the defense's documentary evidence examination for former President Yoon continued from 9:30 a.m. and ended at about 8:41 p.m. That was 11 hours and 11 minutes after the trial began.
Earlier, Yoon's side had indicated the documentary evidence examination would take six to eight hours, but it took longer. Considering the time needed for the special counsel's sentence request and the defendants' final statements, Presiding Judge Jee Kui-youn asked Yoon's attorneys to finish the examination by around 5 p.m., but the attorneys continued speaking.
During the documentary evidence examination, former President Yoon supplemented his attorney's remarks. When attorney Bae Eui-cheol said that Cabinet members did not need to countersign the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held before the proclamation of martial law, Yoon said, "I will explain." He continued, "For presidential decrees and the like submitted by each ministry, the Minister, the prime minister, and the president later countersign, but the entire Cabinet does not countersign the minutes themselves."
When the court asked that the evidence examination be completed by 7:30 p.m., former President Yoon said, "I took time to explain matters related to the Constitution, but the special counsel quickly questioned key witnesses, so the defense could not call constitutional experts and others as witnesses," adding, "There was no time to do these things at all, so it inevitably took time."